188 Miscellaneous. 
arms measured 7 or 8 inches in diameter, and 6 or 7 feet in length ; 
Quoy and Gaimard, who collected in the Atlantic, near the equator, 
the fragments of an enormous mollusk of the same kind, the weight 
of which they estimated at 100 kilogrammes ; and Rang, who saw, 
in the same waters, a Cephalopod of a red colour, with a body the 
size of a large cask. A specimen of one of those monstrous Cuttle- 
fishes was thrown upon the shores of Jutland in 1853: its body, 
which was cut up by the fishermen for bait, furnished loads for 
several wheel-barrows ; and the pharynx, which was preserved, is as 
large as a cchild’s head. This animal was described by M. Steenstrup 
under the name of Architeuthis dux ; and M. Moquin-Tandon men- 
tions that M. Steenstrup showed M. Auguste Duméril a portion of 
one of the arms, as thick as a man’s thigh. Fragmentary specimens 
of a similar nature are contained in the Museum of the Royal College 
of Surgeons in London, and in that of Utrecht; those in the latter 
have recently been described and figured by M. Harting. 
A specimen of one of these enormous mollusca has just been seen 
by the crew of a French man-of-war, and escaped capture only by 
leaving a part of his tail behind him. On the 30th November last, 
at two in the afternoon, the French steamer ‘ Alecton,’ being then 
about 40 leagues N.E. of Teneriffe, fell in with a gigantic Cuttle- 
fish, of a brick-red colour, which appears to have been disporting 
itself at the surface of the sea. The captain gave immediate orders 
to attempt its capture; but a strong gale which was then blowing 
caused the ship to roll much, and rendered its handling difficult, 
whilst the monster, apparently foreseeing the fate that was pre- 
paring for him, displayed great intelligence in avoiding the vessel. 
He was, however, hit with several bullets, and at last struck with a 
harpoon, and seized by a cord with a slip-knot. At this moment, 
when every preparation was being made to secure it, the animal, by 
a sudden violent movement, drew the harpoon out of its soft flesh, 
and at the same time the noose slipped over its skin down to the 
caudal extremity, where it held, but in hoisting the animal out of 
the water the part thus seized broke off, and only a fragment, 
weighing about 20 kilogrammes, was brought on board. Both 
sailors and. officers were anxious to have a boat lowered in order to 
go in pursuit of the creature; but the captain, fearing lest some 
harm should happen to the boat’s crew in their struggle with so 
novel an opponent, declined this step, and left the mutilated mollusk 
to its fate. 
The ship was brought sufficiently near the Cuttle-fish to enable 
one of the officers to make a drawing of it. Its length was 15 or 
18 feet ; and its eight arms, covered with suckers, were estimated at 
5 or 6 feet long. Its eyes, flush with the surface of the head, were 
of enormous size, and their fixity is described as giving them a 
frightful aspect. The mouth, resembling the beak of a parrot, might 
be nearly 18 inches [in diameter]. The body was fusiform, much 
thickened in the centre, and its weight was estimated at 2000 kilo- 
grammes (above 4000 lbs.). The fins formed two large, rounded, 
fleshy lobes.—Comptes Rendus, 30th December, 1861, p. 1263. 
