84 <! 10 ANTIC CEPIIALOPODs. 



measured one 90 feet. He tells me, moreover, that the monsters 

 are edible.* 



Quite a literature has been accumulated within the past few 

 years upon the gigantic cephalopoda of Newfoundland, the 

 occurrence of which has become rather frequent. The above 

 extracts will enable our readers to form some idea of the si/e and 

 appearance of these monsters. Further particulars may be ob- 

 tained by those interested, from the papers of Messrs. Hyatt and 

 Yerrill, in the American Naturalist and American Journal of 

 Science. 



The Great Cephalopoda of the Pacific. Doin Pernetty 

 (" Voyage aux iles Malouines, ii, 76) thus expresses himself on 

 the subject of a cephalopod : 



" In the opinion of the sailors of the South Seas, the Cornet is 

 the largest fish of the ocean. The seamen say also that they 

 attach themselves and grapple with vessels. Our captain and 

 his brother, who have made several voyages on the southern seas. 

 have also assured me of this fact, but they added that they had 

 not seen them of this size, but had eaten of some of 150 weight 

 or thereabouts." 



Molinaf echoes Pernetty when, apropos to his ftepia /irnirn/n, 

 he says : " The sailors exaggerate the size and strength of this 

 animal ; but it is sure that those taken in the seas of Chili do 

 not weigh less than 150 pounds. To exhaust our incomplete in- 

 formation concerning these animals, it is mentioned in the Jour. 

 (Ir /V///.S., ii, 1784, that a South Sea whaler in 1 783 captured a 

 r>al;iMia, iji the mouth of which was found the arm of a Poulpe 

 27 feet long, and thick as a ship's mast. The P>al;x>na is known 

 to live almost entirely, however, on very small pteropods ; it is the 

 dolphin and the cachalot which feed on cephalopoda." 



In the second voyage of Capt. Cook,'j it is related that after 

 having doubled Cape Horn, "Mr Kanks found a great Sepia 

 which appeared to be slain by the birds; its mutilated body 

 Moated on the water; it was very different from the cnttle-lisli 



k Ant., viii, 120, 1874. 

 | " Hist. Nai. Chili," 17M, 

 i ii, :',01. 



