CEPHALOPODS. 307 



certain species which Trebius Niger, quoted by Pliny, 

 mentions, the head of which was of the size of a cask, 

 the brachia each thirty feet long, and the death of which 

 was so difficult to achieve.* Pliny, himself, however, 

 allows that in the Mediterranean Loligincs may be found 

 five cubits in length, and Sepia two ! Sir Edward Belcher 

 informs me that the fishermen of Newfoundland have a 

 legend among themselves, that the backbone of a Cuttle- 

 Fish was once found lying on the northern shores, as 

 large as a whale ! Surely the living owner of that dorsal 

 plate must have been the famous " Kraken " that we 

 remember to have read about ! On moonlight nights 

 among these islands, I have frequently observed the 

 Sepia and Octopi in full predatory activity, and have had 

 considerable trouble and difficulty in securing them, so 

 great is their restless vivacity at this time, and so vigorous 

 their endeavours to escape. They dart from side to side 

 of the pools, or fix themselves so tenaciously to the sur- 

 face of the stones, by means of their sucker-like acetabula, 

 that it requires great force and strength to detach them. 

 Even when removed, and thrown upon the sand, they 

 progress rapidly, in a sidelong shuffling manner, throwing 

 about their long arms, ejecting their ink-like fluid in sud- 

 den violent jets, and staring about with their big, shining 

 eyes (which at night appear luminous, like a cat's,) in a very 

 grotesque and hideous manner. The natives of most of the 

 islands in the China Seas dry these Mollusks ; as likewise 

 the soft parts of Haliotis, Turbo, Hippopus, Tridacna, &c., 

 and make use of them as articles of food. But from my 

 little experience of this kind of diet, notwithstanding the 

 * Vide Pliny, Cap. xxx. Lib. 9. 



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