THE KRAKEN. 373 



strephes sagittatus, is there found in such extraordinary 

 numbers that it furnishes the greater part of the bait used 

 in the Newfoundland cod fisheries. But that they are by 

 no means confined to this locality is proved by recent 

 instances, as well as by those already cited. 



Dr. F. Hilgendorf records * observations of a huge squid 

 exhibited for money at Yedo, Japan, in 1873, and of another 

 of similar size, which he saw exposed for sale in the Yedo 

 fish market. 



When the French expedition was sent to the Island of 

 St. Paul, in 1874, for the purpose of observing the transit 

 of Venus, which occurred on the Qth of December in that 

 year, it was fortunately accompanied by an able zoologist, 

 M. Ch. Velain. He reports f that on the 2nd of November 

 a tidal wave cast upon the north shore of the island a great 

 calamary which measured in total length nearly 23 feet, 

 namely : length of body 7 feet ; length of tentacles 1 6 feet. 

 There are several points of interest connected with its 

 generic characters, and M. Velain's grounds for regard- 

 ing it as being of a previously unknown species, but they 

 are too technical for discussion here. This specimen was 

 photographed as it lay upon the beach by M. Cazin, the 

 photographer to the expedition. 



The following account of the still more recent capture of 

 a large squid off the west coast of Ireland was given in the 

 Zoologist of June, 1875, by Sergeant Thomas O'Connor, of 

 the Royal Irish Constabulary : 



"On the 26th of April, 1875, a very large calamary was met with 

 on the north-west of Boffin Island, Connemara. The crew of a 



* Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft naturforschenden Frcundc 

 Berlin, pp. 65-67, quoted by Professor Owen, op. cit. 

 t Comptes Rendus, t. 80, 1875, p. 99 8 - 



