A MARINE MONSTER IN MOUNT’S BAY, CORNWALL. 209 
surface, but the greater portion of its progress was made under 
water. 
The other occupants of the boat confirm Mr. Parsons’ 
observations in all respects. To them the ‘‘curl” on each side 
of the face was a very prominent feature. 
For my own part I am inclined to think that the creature 
was not a vertebrate animal, there being a singular looseness of 
structure and tendency to a change of form, but it gave the 
impression of being an air-breather. 
At the time that it approached the shore it was low water, 
and all the boats in the neighbourhood were high and dry, or 
some attempt would have been made to capture the creature and 
clear up the mystery connected with it. 
[There can be little doubt, from the description and figures, 
that the creature in question was a gigantic Squid, probably a 
species of Architeuthis, some of which attain a considerable size. 
In ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1875 (p. 4526), Mr. A. G. More gave an 
interesting account of a gigantic cephalopod (Dinoteuthis pro- 
boscidens), which was stranded at Dingle, in Kerry, about two 
centuries ago, the description of which is contained in a collection 
of rare tracts relating to Irish history formed by the well-known 
bookseller, Thomas Thorpe, and now preserved in the Library of 
the Royal Dublin Society. Referring to this Irish specimen in 
his ‘Manual of Conchology,’ Mr. Tryson states (vol. i., p. 82) 
that Mr. Verrill, a good authority, was of opinion that the species 
was Architeuthis monachus, Steenstrup. 
Looking at fig. 1, the idea conveyed is that of an animal 
swimming from right to left, showing considerably more of the 
body than of the head; and this appears to have been the 
impression conveyed to the mind of the describer, an impression 
which would be heightened by the fact that the direction of the 
creature’s course really was from right to left. But we have 
only to regard the left-hand portion of fig. 1 as the top of the 
head with projecting eyes, and the right-hand portion as the long 
tentacles projecting forward on the surface of the water, and 
bearing in mind that the siphonal action in the Cuttles and 
Squids causes the creature to travel, as it were, backwards, to 
have, as it seems to us, an explanation of what was seen by 
Mr. Millett. We must suppose that what looks like the body in 
ZOOLOGIST.—MAyY, 1886. R 
