372 SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED. 



On the 22nd of September, 1877, another gigantic squid 

 was stranded at Catalina, on the north shore of Trinity 

 Bay, Newfoundland, during a heavy equinoctial gale. It 

 was alive when first seen, but died soon after the ebbing of 

 the tide, and was left high and dry upon the beach. Two 

 fishermen took possession of it, and the whole settlement 

 gathered to gaze in astonishment at the monster. Formerly 

 it would have been converted into manure, or cut up as 

 food for dogs, but, thanks to the diffusion of intelligence, 

 there were some persons in Catalina who knew the import- 

 ance of preserving such a rarity, and who advised the 

 fishermen to take it to St. John's. After being exhibited 

 there for two days, it was packed in half-a-ton of ice in 

 readiness for transmission to Professor Verrill, in the hope 

 that it would be placed in the Peabody or Smithsonian 

 Museum ; but at the last moment its owners violated their 

 agreement, and sold it to a higher bidder. The final 

 purchase was made for the New York Aquarium, where it 

 arrived on the 7th of October, immersed in methylated 

 spirit in a large glass tank. Its measurements were as fol- 

 lows : length of body 10 feet ; length of tentacles 30 feet ; 

 length of shorter arm 1 1 feet ; circumference of body 7 feet ; 

 breadth of caudal fin 2 feet 9 inches ; diameter of largest 

 tentacular sucker I inch ; number of suckers on each of 

 the shorter arms 250. 



The appearance of so many of these great squids on 

 the shores of Newfoundland during the term of seven years, 

 and after so long a period of popular uncertainty as to 

 their very existence had previously elapsed, might lead one 

 to suppose that the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean 

 which wash the north-eastern coasts of the American Con- 

 tinent were, at any rate, temporarily, their principal habitat, 

 especially as a smaller member of their family, Omma- 



