90 GIGANTIC CEPHALOPODS. 



ness? In favor of the lirst li\ pothesis. it may le said that: 



I. In nearly all the great divisions of the ceplmlopoels, gigantic 

 individuals have 1 been observed; II. Monstrous specimens of 

 Ammonite's. Nautilus, etc., are found among the fossil cephalo- 

 pods, also; 111. That the rarity itself of the occurrence of these 

 large individuals would be presumptive evidence of the abnormal 

 development of a species usually much smaller; for example. 

 the great L. Bouyeri is perhaps the same species as cephalopods 

 seen by the fishermen of the Canaries, and which do not exceed 

 about fi feet. On the other hand, it may be supposed: J. That 

 the rarity of these immense' animals is due to their habits as 

 well as their size, that they frequent very great depths, and that 

 we consequently only encounter feeble or half-dead individuals ; 



II. That the size of some of them is so out of proportion with 

 the ordinary size of related species, that it is wiser to consider 

 them distinct. Messrs. Crosse and Fisher, in concluding the 

 observations of which the above is a succinct resume, express 

 a guarded preference for the tirst hypothesis.* 



Fabulous Cephalopoda. We have already alluded to l>en\s 

 MontfortV "Colossal Poulpe'/' which, entwining its arms about 

 the masts of a ship, nearly caused the 1 destruction of tin- vessel. 



Among the extraordinary mistakes or inventions with which 

 the dawn of natural history has been encumbered, one of the 

 most remarkable is the six-armed poulpe or ti'/)ia /ic.rajxxlia of 

 Molina, in I he " Hist. Nat. del Chili/' ITSi. It was adopted by 

 (Jinelin under the name' of Sepia Ar,/v//m.s-. and by IJosc. Turton 

 and OeUen ; and Denys Mont fort has composed and published 

 an imaginary figure' of this strange 1 beast in accordance with 

 Molina's description. Kerussac (Ann. tic. Nat. Zol.. iv. ll:j. 

 IS.'};")) has given a history of this animal, in which he shows that 

 the Spectre, an oi'thoptcrous insect, is the' original of this 

 species;" which, in addit ion to its six arms, possessed a six- 

 jointed body. MontforCs figure is reproduced in our frontis- 

 piece, in connection with that of the "colossal poulpe" with 

 which his fervid imagination has enriched science. 



Jour, de Conch., 3d scr., ii, 139, 1802. 



