4570 TueE Zoo_ocist—Aveust, 1875. 
4502),—is no myth, and the great size of the animal is sufficiently 
proved both by letters received from Sergeant O’Connor, of the 
Royal Irish Constabulary stationed in Boffin Island, and by the 
portions of this great squid which he has sent up to Dublin. 
Though imperfect, both tentacles and arms are represented, and 
the huge beak, about five inches across, is now to be seen in the 
Museum of the Royal Dublin Society. 
The animal was killed on the 25th of April; and, as the men 
who attacked it were in a small boat, they could only bring ashore 
the head and some of the arms—viz., the tentacles and two of the 
short arms. The head and eyes were unfortunately destroyed, but 
Sergeant O’Connor managed to rescue, and has transmitted to us, 
the greater part of both tentacles, one short arm, and the beak. 
He measured the tentacles when fresh as reaching to the length of 
thirty feet, and the portions of them which we have received— 
shrunk and distorted as they now are—still measure fourteen and 
seventeen feet, when the pieces are put together. The peduncle 
is nearly bare throughout, but on closer examination, a few small, 
solitary, nearly sessile, suckers, about three-twentieths of an inch 
in diameter, are found scattered in an irregular line and at con- 
siderable intervals along the whole length of the stalk, becoming 
more numerous upwards. The club itself now measures altogether 
two feet and nine inches; at its base there is a space, or patch, for 
about five inches closely covered with small crowded suckers, two- 
tenths of an inch in diameter, and which are arranged in rows of 
about six across; only a few of these have a denticulated horny 
ring; the lower rows, like all those on the peduncle, have the 
ring smooth. The centre of the club for about eighteen inches 
is occupied by large pedunculated suckers nearly an inch in 
diameter, arranged somewhat alternately along the middle, and 
there is the same number of half-inch suckers along the margin, 
about fourteen in each line—twenty-eight large and twenty-eight 
smaller. No horny rings are left in the large central suckers, 
but those in the outer rows along the edge are all furnished 
with a denticulated ring bearing some twenty-eight teeth pointing 
inwards, and there is no doubt that the central suckers were 
once similarly armed, but the rings had fallen out before the 
specimens were preserved. The inner surface of the tapering end 
of the club is again crowded with small and probably smooth- 
tinged suckers. 
