GIAXT CEPHALOPODS. 171 



up with it, five miles out in the open Atlantic, anil severed another of its arms and the head. 

 These portions, labelled Architenthis <lxx, can now be seen in the Dublin Museum. The shorter arms 

 measured each eight feet in length and fifteen inches round the base. The tentacular arms are 

 said to have been thirty feet long.* 



In 1861 the French steamer Alecton fell in with an enormous Calamary between Madeira 

 and Tenerifie. Vigorous efforts were made to secure this monster, but, after a severe struggle, it 

 succeeded in making its escape, leaving its tail behind. Its length was estimated at about fifteen 

 or eighteen feet, and its eight arms, covered with suckers, appeared to be about five or six feet long. 



A gigantic Cuttle-fish " was found floating on the sm-face at the Grand Bank, Newfoundland, 

 in October, 1871, by Captain Campbell, of the schooner B. D. Hoskins, of Gloucester, Mass. 

 Dr. A. S. Packard published some account of it in the ' American Naturalist,' 1873, Vol. vii., p. 91. Its 

 jaws were sent to the Smithsonian Institution. Professor Steenstrup, who saw a photograph of them, 

 thought they belonged to Architenthis monachug, an inhabitant of the Northern coast of Europe. 

 The horny jaw, or beak, of this specimen is thick and strong, nearly black ; it is acute at the 

 apex, with a decided notch or angle on the inside, about '75 of an inch from the point, and beyond 

 the notch is a large, prominent, angular lobe. The body of the specimen from which this jaw was 

 taken is stated to have measured fifteen feet in length and four feet eight inches in circumference. 

 The amis were mutilated, but the portions remaining were estimated to be nine or ten feet long 

 and twenty-two inches in circumference, two being shorter than the rest. It was estimated to 

 weigh 2,000 Ibs." 



" Two fishermen were plying their vocation off Great Belle Island, Conception Bay, October 26, 

 1873. Suddenly they discovered at a short distance from them a dark shapeless mass floating on 

 the surface of the water. Concluding that it was probably part of the cargo of some wrecked 

 vessel, they approached it, anticipating a valuable prize, and one of them struck the object with his 

 boat-hook. Upon receiving the shock the dark heap became suddenly animated, and, spreading out, 

 discovered a head, with a pair of large, prominent, staring eyes, which seemed to gleam with 

 intense ferocity, the creature at the same time exposing to view and opening its parrot-like beak 

 with an apparently hostile and malignant purpose. The men were petrified with terror, and for a 

 moment so fascinated by the horrible sight as to be powerless to stir. Befoi'e they had time to 

 recover their presence of mind the monster, now but a few feet from the boat, suddenly shot out 

 from around its head several long, fleshy arms, grappling with them for the boat, and seeking to 

 envelop it in their folds. Only the two longest of these arms reached the craft, and, owing to 

 their great length, went completely over and beyond it. Seizing his hatchet, with a desperate 

 effort one of the men succeeded in severing these limbs with a single well-delivered blow, and 

 the creature, finding itself worsted, immediately disappeared beneath the waters, leaving in the 

 boat its amputated members as a trophy of the encounter. One of the arms was unfortunately 

 destroyed before its value was known, but the other, when brought to St. John's, and examined 

 by the Rev. M. Harvey, was found to measure no less than nineteen feet ; and the fisherman who 

 acted as surgeon declares there must have been at least six feet more of this arm left attached 

 to the monster's body." t 



Professor Verrill writes: " This fragment, which is preserved in the Museum of St. John's, New- 

 foundland, represents the distal half of one of the long tentacular arms, with its expanded terminal 

 portion covered with suckers, twenty-four of which are larger than the rest ; they are in two rows ; the 

 border is not serrated. They measure 1'25 inch in diameter; the other suckers are smaller, very 

 numerous ; the edge of each is supported by a serrated chitinous ring. The part of the arm preserved 

 measiired nineteen feet in length, and 3'5 inches in circumference, but wider, 'like an oar,' and six 

 inches in circumference near the end where the suckers are situated ; but its length, when entire, was 

 estimated at forty-two feet." J Professor A. E. Verrill estimates the entire length of the creature, 

 including its arms, to have been sixty feet. The fishermen told Mr. Harvey that when wounded 

 the Calamary ejected such a vast quantity of ink that the water was discoloured for some 200 

 square yards around. 



* Zoologist, June, 1875. + W. S Kent, Procee'Vn'is of the Zoolo'jictl Society, 1874, p. 178. 



J " Silliman's American Journal," 1875, vol. ix., p. 178. 



