362 SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 



in H.M.S. Endeavour, found in the North Pacific, in lati- 

 tude 38 44' S. and longitude 110 33' W., a large calamary 

 which had just been killed by the birds, and was floating in 

 a mangled condition on the water. Its arms were furnished, 

 instead of suckers, with a double row of very sharp talons, 

 which resembled those of a cat, and, like them, were retract- 

 able into a sheath of skin from which they might be thrust 

 at pleasure. Of this cuttle they say, with evident pleasur- 

 able remembrance of a savoury meal, they made one of the 

 best soups they ever tasted. Professor Owen tells us, in the 

 paper already referred to, that when he was curator of the 

 Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 preparing, in 1829, his first catalogue thereof, he was struck 

 with the number of oceanic invertebrates which Hunter had 

 obtained. He learned from Mr. Clift that Hunter had sup- 

 plied Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Banks with stoppered 

 bottles containing alcohol, in which to preserve the new 

 marine animals that he might meet with during the circum- 

 navigatory voyage about to be undertaken by Cook. 

 Thinking it probable that Banks might have stowed some 

 parts of this great hook-armed squid in one of these bottles for 

 his anatomical friend, he searched for, and found in a bottle 

 marked " J. B.," portions of its arms, the beak with tongue, a 

 heart ventricle, &c., and, amongst the dry preparations, the 

 terminal part of the body, with an attached pair of rhom- 

 boidal fins. The remainder had furnished Cook and his 

 companions Banks and Solander with a welcome change of 

 diet in the commander's cabin of the Endeavour. As the 

 inner surface of the arms of the squid, as well as the 

 terminals of its tentacles, were studded with hooks, Professor 

 Owen named it Enoploteuthis CookiL He estimates the 

 diameter of the tail fin at 15 inches, the length of its body 

 3 feet, of its head 10 inches, of the shorter arms 16 inches, 



