76 GIGANTIC CEPHALOPODS. 



394, t. 2), and which more resembles an island than an organized 

 being. 



It would be tiresome to enumerate all the marvelous stories 

 which have been debited to its account ; but the impression which 

 they have made on the minds of the Northern naturalists has 

 been sufficiently great to determine Linnaeus to accord the 

 Kraken a place in his Fauna Suecica, as well as in his Systema 

 (Sepia microcosmos). Bosc has followed the example of Lin- 

 naeus, and the Kraken has become to his eyes a sort of cattle- 

 fish. Montfort has taken care to make of it a being different 

 from his Colossal Poulpe. 



We know at present what degree of confidence can be accorded 

 to Pontoppidan, who is entirely responsible for the invention of 

 the sea-serpent, and who hesitates not, as well as Montfort. his 

 imitator, to make figures to support his fantastic descriptions ; 

 but it is not the less certain that very large cephalopods have 

 been taken in the Northern Seas. 



Friis speaks of a colossal Poulpe caught in the rocks of the 

 Gulf of Ulwangen, in 1680. 



Steenstrup communicated to the reunion of Scandinavian 

 naturalists held in 1847, information concerning two gigantic 

 cephalopods captured, in 1639 and 1790, on the coast of Iceland. 



In 1856, M. Steenstrup gave some observations on a cephal- 

 opod thrown upon the coast of Jutland. The body of the animal. 

 cut up by the fishermen for bait, furnished the contents of several 

 wheelbarrows, and the pharynx, which has been preserved, was 

 of the size of an infant's head. 



The cephalopod of Jutland and those of Iceland belong to the 

 Calamary type. The first has received the name of Architeuihis 

 du.r ; the two others are designated provisionally by M. Steen- 

 strup under the name of ArcliitcnUii* monadm*. 



It is probable that the stump of an arm shown by Steenstrup 

 to M. A. Dumeril, the size of which equaled that of a inaifs 

 thigh, belonged to Architeuthi* dn.r* 



In the vaults of the British Museum there has been long pre- 

 served a single arm of a huge cephalopod, measuring from one 

 end to the other no less than nine feet ; the circumference at its 



Gompt. Rend., 1861. 



