The Zoologist — August, 1874. 4107 



the divisions of the " foot," as it is called in gasteropod molluslis, 

 are always eight, and that the supplementary pair in certain cephalo- 

 pods find«o homologues whatever in the octopods. These supple- 

 mentary arras are without doubt those which Theophilus Picot 

 succeeded in amputating. 



The fishermen were far too terrified by the encounter to give 

 any reliable estimate of the size of the enemy ; they talked of sixty 

 feet in length, but we all know that hasty estimates of the size of a 

 sea serpent or a sea squid cannot be quoted as good Natural 

 History ; and therefore we have every reason to congratulate our- 

 selves on a coincidence which has rarely happened in the annals 

 of Science. Scarcely had the first narrative obtained publicity 

 when a second squid, little inferior in size to the first, was taken 

 by three Newfoundland fishermen in a herring-net in Logie Bay, 

 some three miles from St. John's. Its voluminous arms became so 

 completely entangled in the folds of the net that its power of resist- 

 ance was annihilated. The entire body was taken to St, John's; 

 photographs were made, and means were taken to preserve the 

 body entire. The following dimensions were taken and recorded : — 

 Length of body - - - 8 feet. 



Girth of body - - - 5 „ 



Length of supplementary tentacles - 24 „ 



Length of the eight shorter arms - 6 „ 



The publication of this account elicited others, and there is now 

 no reasonable doubt that gigantic squids not only exist but almost 

 abound on the coast of Newfoundland; there is no doubt, more- 

 over, that they constitute the principal food of the Odontocete, 

 those toothed whales which form so important a series of endosteate 

 animals. 



Mr. Kent has, I venture to think, done unwisely in giving a new 

 generic and specific name to this creature {Megaloleuthis Harveyi) ; 

 we already have more genera and more species than we have 

 specimens, and I cannot but anticipate they will all melt away 

 when placed in the crucible of more exact science. Professor 

 Steenstrup had previously named one of the monsters Architeulhis 

 Monachus and another Architeuthis Dux. These are described by 

 Professor Verrill in a most interesting contribution to Silliman's 

 'American Journal' for January last. 



So far 1 had written when I saw the following in the 'Times' of 

 Saturday, July 4lh. Whether intended to burlesque and discredit 



