FABULOUS CEPHALOPODS. 91 



Denys Montfort's monster is outdone, however, by the Nor- 

 wegian Kraken described by Bishop Kric Pontoppidan as an 

 animal. the largest in creation, whose body rises a bove the surface 

 of the water like a mountain, and its arms like the masts of ships, 

 and a whole regiment; of soldiers could easily go through tlieir 

 mameuvres on its back. This almost marvelous account is con- 

 firmed by what happened to the Bishop of Xidros. who. discov- 

 ering one of these gigantic monsters asleep in the sun, naturally 

 mistook it, for a large rock, and raised an altar on its surface, 

 where he celebrated Mass. The good-natured Kraken permitted 

 the worthy Bishop to finish die ceremony and regain the shore, 

 before disappearing beneath the waves. After this account, who 

 shall believe the malicious inventions of Victor Hugo and Denys 

 Montfort ? A celebrated Kraken of antiquity was the Hydra of 

 Lerna. destroyed by Hercules. 



Among the curious inventions of ancient and modern roinan- 

 cists upon the subject of the octopod or poulp, none is more 

 bi/arre than the description given of it in Victor Hugo's novel. 

 "The Toilers of the Sea." That author invests tin' animal with 

 a strange organization and stranger feelings : this "jelly seasoned 

 with hatred has but one opening in the centre of his radial. Is 

 this only hiatus the anus? Is it the mouth? It is both. The 

 same opening performs both functions. It is entrance and out- 

 let.' 1 Again, he denies to the creature a beak, yet he makes it 

 powerful for the destruction of human life. A verv caustic crit- 

 icism on this work of M. Hugo, by Mr. Henri Crosse. under the 

 title of " A well-abused Mollusk," was printed in Journal de 

 C<>n<-/i//li(>l<><ii<>. ISC.C,. and a translation of it was published in 

 " Am. Jour. Conch.," ii. -294. 



Cephalopoda in tlieir Relation* with Other Animals.* 



The number of cephalopods of small size is excessively great, 

 but they become the prey of a multitude of enemies. On the 

 10th Jan.. lxr>S. the Dutch ship Vriendentrouw sailed for two 

 hours through dead Loligos. covering the surface of the sea as 



* A list of animals parasitic upon the Cephalopoda, is given by Kefer- 

 stein (Bronn's Klassen und Ordnungen). 



