336 



MOLLUSCS. 



another of its arms and the head. The shorter arms measured each 8 feet in 

 length, and 15 inches round the base; the tentacular arms are said to have been 

 30 feet long. A single arm of a large squid, supposed to have been found off the 

 coast of South America, is 9 feet long and 11 inches round the base, and has two 

 rows of suckers, with toothed, horny rings, each row consisting of one hundred 

 and fifty suckers. The largest of these rings is half an inch in diameter, whereas 

 the smallest, near the tapering end of the arm, is only about the size of a pin's 

 head. Judging by other specimens, it is probable that this creature must have had 

 a body 10 or 12 feet in length, with tentacles over 30 feet long. 



Some portions of a remarkable gigantic cephalopod were obtained by the 

 Prince of Monaco off the Azores, which were vomited by a harpooned sperm-whale 

 in its death-struggle. The body of this huge squid was covered with scales arranged 

 spirally like those of a pine-cone ; and from this character — unique among the 

 Cephalopods — it has been placed in a separate genus Lepidoteuthis. 



Family SEPIOLID^E. 



Sepiola is represented by a small decapod not unf requently found on the British 

 coasts. Mr. Lee observes that " it has the faculty of rapidly changing colour, and, 



UPPER AND LOWER VIEWS OF SEPIOLA. 



if angered or alarmed, its hue is almost instantaneously altered, from a pale parch- 

 ment dotted with pink to a deep reddish brown. In its habits this little animal 



