262 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



were sixteen feet long, the pedal arms about half as 

 long, and its body seven feet. The French ship Alccton, 

 on 3Oth November 1861, between Madeira and Teneriffe, 

 slipped a rope with a running knot over an enormous 

 calamary, but only brought a portion on board, the 

 body breaking off. It was estimated at being sixteen 

 to eighteen feet in length, without counting its arms. 

 The legend of its sinking ships and taking sailors from 

 them is common to many countries, even the Chinese 

 and Japanese thus depicting them. 



Olaus Magnus gives us a graphic picture of a huge 

 Polyp, thus seizing a sailor, and dragging him from 

 his ship in spite of all his efforts to prevent him. On 

 next page is a huge calamary shown with a man in 

 its clutches. This is both in Gesner and Aldrovandus. 

 But this terror to mariners had its master in the Conger 

 eel. Gesner, who has taken his picture from some de- 

 scription of the World, introduces it as a Sea-Serpent ; 

 but Aristotle says that "the Congers devour the 

 Polypi, which cannot adhere to them on account of the 



