Big Game at Sea 



the denizens of the deep sea. That there was some 

 foundation for these tales became evident several 

 decades ago when giant squids were captured in New- 

 foundland waters ; and later, whalers who follow the 

 sperm whale have shown that the deep sea contains 

 cuttlefishes sixty or seventy feet in length; creatures 

 which, in their make-up, present an appearance at 

 once terrifying and horrible; animals so large, pow- 

 erful and active that, were they so disposed, a single 

 specimen in open water could, doubtless, play havoc 

 with a number of men, seizing them in its sucker- 

 lined arms and drowning them with comparative 

 ease. The largest specimen actually handled and 

 measured by me was about fifty feet in length, 

 including the long arms, and it would be difficult 

 to conceive a more hideous object. The body is 

 barrel-shaped, with an arrow-shaped tail, and in large 

 individuals weighs a ton or more; the eyes are as 

 large as saucers, black and staring. The head bears 

 eight arms lined on the inner side with sucking saw- 

 like discs; and two longer arms, which in the animal 

 I measured were thirty feet in length, with sucking 

 discs at the tips. Between the base of the arms is 

 the mouth, with a toothed tongue, and a pair of 

 beaks apparently identical in shape and color with 

 those of a parrot, and quite as powerful. The ani- 

 mal's mode of propulsion is to take in water at the 

 gills and eject it violently through the siphon. Thus 

 equipped, with ten snakelike arms, myriads of suckers, 



50 



