^2 i Hi ANTIC CEl'JLALOl'UDS. 



A letter from a ' very Sober person in Dublin " mentions that 

 " The head was not soe bigg as my fist, the mouth and two hard 

 shells upon it very black and shap'd like to an Eagle's Bill, but 

 broader ; in the mouth there was two tongues, and (as the Man 

 declared that tooke this monster) the Beast had naturall power 

 to draw this head in or putt it out of the Body as necessity 

 required." 



Such are the essential portions of a communication made by 

 Mr. A. G. More, F. L. S., to The Zoologist (page 452(5, 1875). 

 Whether the " Monster " shall be classified on the faith of Mr. 

 More, as a new cephalopod, or whether it would be better 

 arranged among the Irish Bulls as a marine form thereof, I leave 

 to the discrimination of my readers. Mr. Verrill, who is good 

 authority, thinks it is Architeuthis monachus Steenstrup. 



The American Sportsman for Dec. tith, 1873, contains a well- 

 authenticated account of a huge cephalopod lately encountered 

 in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, one of the longer arms of the 

 same having been secured and deposited in the St. John's 

 Museum. The full description of the monster as contributed by 

 the Rev. M. Harvey, of St. John's, may be thus condensed : 



Two fishermen while plying their vocation off Great Belle Island, 

 Conception Hay, Oct. 26th, 1873, suddenly discovered, at a short 

 distance from them, a dark shapeless mass iloating on the sur- 

 face of the water. Concluding that it was probably part of the 

 cargo of some wrecked vessel, they approached, anticipating a 

 valuable prize, and one of them struck the object with his boat- 

 hook. Upon receiving the shock the dark heap became suddenly 

 animated, and showed an intelligent face 1 , with a pair of large 

 prominent ghastly eyes, which seemed to gleam with intense 1 

 ferocity, the creature at the same time exposing to view, and 

 opening,* its parrot-like beak with an apparently hostile and 

 malignant purpose. The men were; petrified with terror, and for 

 a moment so fascinated by the horrible sight as to be powerless 

 to stir. Before they had time to recover their presenee of mind, 

 the monster, now but a lew feet from tin- boat, suddenly shot out 

 from around its head several long arms of corpse-like lleshiness, 

 grappling with them for the boat and seeking to envelop it in 

 their folds. Only two of these reached the craft, and, owing to 



