PLYING CDTTLES. 315 



mentioned on page 28, when treating of the spermaceti 

 whale. 



Dr. Schewediawer's account has been recently 

 corroborated by a communication sent by the Rev. 

 Mr. Harvey to the Natural History Society of Montreal. 

 Some fishermen saw floating near St. John's, New- 

 foundland, something which they took to be a wreck, 

 and struck it with a gaff. It proved to be a gigantic 

 cuttle, shaped, and moving like a squid ; and on being 

 struck, it wrapped two enormous arms over the boat. 

 These the men cut off with an axe, when the creature 

 moved off, ejecting at the time its ink to such an 

 extent as to darken the water for some distance. 

 They afterwards saw it with its tail in the air, the 

 width of which they estimated at ten feet. 



They considered that the total length of the 

 creature must have been about sixty feet. This seems 

 an enormous measurement, but is carried out by the 

 dimensions of the arms, which were brought ashore. 

 The people not knowing the value of the acquisition, 

 destroyed one, and had already cut off six feet of the 

 other, when Mr. Harvey rescued it. The portion 

 which he saved measured nineteen feet in length ; and 

 if we add to that the six feet which were lost, and the 

 ten feet which the men estimated to have been left on 

 the cuttle, their measurement is not very far from 

 correct. The arm was not much more than an inch in 

 diameter, except at the tip, where, however, it was 

 six inches. The arm was plentifully beset with 

 suckers. 



A clergyman told Mr. Harvey that while he was at 

 Lauraline, two Cuttles were thrown ashore in the 



