[Prom the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy. Vol. Y. 187y.] 



Thb Cephalopods of the North-e astern Coast of America. 

 By a. E. Verrill. 



Part I. — The gigantic squids {ArcMteuthis) and their allies ; 



WITH OBSERYATIONS ON SIMILAR LARGE SPECIES FROM FOREIGN 

 LOCALITIES. 



The early literature of Natural History has, from yery remote 

 times, contained allusions to huge species of Cephalopods, often 

 accompanied by more or less fabulous and usually exaggerated 

 descriptions of the creatures.* In a few instances figures were 

 attempted, which were largely indebted to the imagination of their 

 authors for their more striking peculiarities. 



In recent times many more accurate observers have confirmed the 

 existence of such monsters, and several fragments have found their 

 way into European niuseums. 



To Professor Steenstrup and to Dr. Ilarting, however, belongs the 

 credit of first describing and figuring, in a scientific manner, a sufti- 

 cient number of specimens to give a fair idea of the real character 

 and affinities of these colossal species. More particular accounts of 

 the specimens described by these and other recent writers will be 

 given farther on. 



Special attention has only recently been called to the frequent 

 occurrence of these ' big squids,' as our fishermen call them, in the 

 waters of Newfoundland, and the adjacent coasts. The cod-fishermen, 

 who visit the Grand Banks, appear, from their statements, to have 

 been long familiar with them, and occasionally to have captured and 

 used them for bait. The whalemen have also repeatedly stated that 

 sperm whales feed upon huge squid, and that, when wounded, they 



* The description of the " Poulpe" or devil-fish by Victor Hugo, in " The Toilers of 

 the Sea," with which so many readers have recently become familiar, is quite as fab- 

 ulous and unreal as any of the earlier accounts, and even more bizarre. His descrip- 

 tion represents no real animal whatever. He has attributed to the creature habits 

 and anatomical structures that belong in part to the j^olyps and in part to the ^poulpe' 

 (Octopus). His description appears to have been derived from descriptions of these 

 totally distinct groups of animals contained in some cyclopedia, which he has con- 

 founded and hopelessly mixed up. 



Trans. Conn. Acad., Vol. V. 23 December, ISTQ, 



