4502 Tue ZooLocist—J UNE, 1875. 
many eminent scientific men were present. After the festival, the guests 
visited the magnificent aquarium and the working room of the zoologists: 
there are eighteen gentlemen now working there. The States which have 
reserved working tables at the Station are Prussia, Italy, Russia, Austria, 
Bavaria, Baden, Holland, Saxony, Alsace and Lorraine, and Mecklenburg ; 
also, as our readers know, a table has been reserved for the University of 
Cambridge.—‘ Nature,’ April 22nd. 
(Mr. Lloyd, of the Crystal Palace Aquarium, has been the adviser of 
everything that has to do with the aquarium department of this undertaking. 
Edward Newman.] 
Capture of an enormous Cuttle-fish off Boffin Island, on the Coast of 
Connemara.—On Monday last the crew of a curragh,* consisting of three 
men, met with a strange adventure north-west of Boffin Island, Connemara. 
The capture of a cuttle-fish sounds little of an exploit. Ordinarily the fish 
is of small size, a few inches in circumference, with projecting arms, studded 
with suckers, by which it retains its prey—the body containing a dark fluid, 
which it emits on being startled, and, blackening the surrounding water, so 
eludes its enemy. + Very different indeed from this ordinary type was the 
creature in question. Having shot their spillets (or long lines) in the 
morning, the crew of the curragh observed to seaward a great floating mass 
surrounded by gulls ; they pulled out, believing it to be wreck, but, to their 
great astonishment, found it to be a cuttle-fish, of enormous proportions, 
and lying perfectly still, as if basking on the surface of the water. What 
rarely enough occurs, there was no gaff or spare rope, and a knife was the 
only weapon aboard. The cuttle is much prized as bait for coarse fish, and, 
their wonder somewhat over, the crew resolved to secure at least a portion 
of the prize. Cousidering the great size of the monster, and knowing the 
crushing and holding powers of the arms, open hostility could not be resorted 
to, and the fishermen shaped their tactics differently. Paddling up with 
caution, a single arm was suddenly seized and lopped off. The cuttle, 
hitherto at rest, became dangerously active now, and set out to sea at full 
speed in a cloud of spray, rushing through the water at a tremendous rate. 
The canoe immediately gave chase, and was up again with the enemy after 
three-quarters of a mile. Hanging on rear of the fish, a single arm was 
* These boats are a large kind of coracle made with wooden ribs, and covered 
with tarred canvas. 
+ See Verrill, in ‘Annals of Natural History,’ vol. xiii., p. 255 (1874); Kent, in 
‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1874; Fredol, in ‘Monde de la Mer :? 
Harvey, in ‘Annals of Natural History,’ vol. xiii., p. 67 (January, 1874); Gwyn 
Jeffreys, in ‘ British Conchology,’ vol. y., p. 124, for a large specimen stranded in 
Shetland ; and ‘ Field’ Newspaper of December 13, 1873, and of January 31, 1874 
(‘ Deyil-fish”’). 
