CURIOUS CREATURES. 261 



way ; the nature of it is, -that it agrees with other living 

 creatures in the way of contracting, and dilating itself : 

 yet some are immovable from rocks, and if they be 

 broken off at the Roots, they grow again ; some are 



movable from place to place; and these are found in 

 huge plenty on the foresaid shores. They are fed with 

 mud, small fish, and oysters. When they are alive, 

 they are black, as they are when they are wet." 



THE KRAKEN. 



This enormous monster, peculiar to the Northern 

 Seas, is scarcely a fable, because huge Calamaries are 

 not infrequently seen. Poor Pontoppidan has often been 

 considered a Danish Ananias, but there are authentic 

 accounts of these enormous Cuttle-fish ; for instance, in 

 1854, one was stranded at the Skag, in Jutland, which 

 was cut in pieces by the fishermen in order to be used 

 as bait, and filled many wheelbarrows. Another, either 

 in 1860 or 1861, was stranded between Hillswick and 

 Scalloway, on the west of Scotland, and its tentacles 



