224 CEPHALOPODS. 



Several instances are on record of the occurrence of Cephalo- 

 pods of enormous size. Aristotle speaks of a great cuttle-fish five 

 fathoms in length. Peron found in the sea near Tasmania a speci- 

 men the arms of which measured six or seven inches in diameter. 

 Ouoy and Gaymard collected in the Atlantic, near the equator, 

 fragments of an enormous Mollusk, perhaps of the same kind, 

 whose weight was estimated at 200 Ibs. A cuttle-fish was cast 

 upon the shores of Jutland in 1853, the body of which was cut 

 up by the fishermen for bait, and furnished loads for several 

 wheelbarrows : a portion of one of the arms was as thick as a 

 man's thigh. Fragmentary tentacles of large proportions are 

 preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 in that of King's College, in London. 



A specimen of gigantic dimensions recently seen by the crew 

 of a French man-of-war, escaped capture only by leaving a part 

 of his tail behind him. "On the 3<Dth of November, 1861, the 

 French steamer Alecton, being then about forty leagues, N.E., 

 off Teneriffe, fell in with a gigantic cuttle-fish, of a brick-red 

 colour, disporting itself at the surface of the sea. He was hit by 

 several bullets, and at last struck with a harpoon and seized by 

 a cord with a slip-knot. At this moment, however, when every 

 preparation was being made to secure it, the animal by a violent 

 effort tore away the harpoon from its soft flesh, and at the same 

 time the noose slipped down to its caudal end, where it held ; but 

 in hoisting the creature out of the water, the part thus seized broke 

 off, and only a fragment, weighing about 46 Ibs., was brought on 

 board. Both sailors and officers were anxious to have a boat 

 lowered in order to go in pursuit of the creature ; but the captain, 

 fearing that some harm might happen to the boat's crew in the 

 struggle with so novel an opponent, declined, and left the mutilated 

 cuttle-fish to its fate. The ship was brought sufficiently near to 

 enable one of the officers to make a drawing of it. Its length was 

 fifteen or eighteen feet, and its eight arms, covered with suckers, 

 were estimated at five or six feet long, its beak measured about a 

 foot and a half across, and its weight was estimated at 2,000 kilo- 

 grammes (above 4,000 Ibs.)." " Comptcs Rcndus" 3Oth Dec., 1861. 



The Common Poulpe {Octopus wdgaris)^ represented in Fig. 239, will serve to 

 illustrate the general structure and habits of the class. A single glance at our engrav- 

 ing, representing one of these animals ensconced in the entrance of his den, is sufficient 

 to convince us of the very unamiable character of such a monster. The giants and 

 ogres of romance were never so fearfully armed, or clothed by the wildest fiction with 

 so terrible an aspect. Eminently carnivorous, voracious, and fierce, these animals feed 

 largely upon fishes whose activity and slippery mail would elude a less effective appa- 



