122 REVIEWS, TRANSLATIONS, AND SELECTED ARTICLES. 



REVIEWS, TRANSLATIONS, AND SELECTED 

 ARTICLES. 



NOTICES OF PAPERS IN FOREIGN JOURNALS. 



1. On the Existence of Dihrancldate Oephalopods of great hulk. — 

 The Cephalopods, the highest types of molluscous development, fall 

 into two leading groups or orders. In the lower group, the animal 

 possesses four branchiae and numerous arms, and secretes an external 

 many-chambered shell. The nautilus is the only remaining type of 

 this group, so rich in representatives during the earlier and middle 

 epochs of geological history. The forms of the second and higher 

 group, have but two branchiae, and but eight or ten arms ; but these 

 latter are provided with suckers, or organs for obtaining a powerful 

 hold of their prey ; and the animal is also furnished with a gland 

 for the secretion of a dark fluid, which is ejected into the surrounding 

 water when the creature is pursued or alarmed. These dibranchiate 

 cephalopoda inhabit a shell of a single chamber, as in the argonaut, 

 or are otherwise " naked," as in all other types, including the aepia 

 OP cuttle-fish, the calamary, &g., genera unprovided with an ex- 

 ternal shell. 



The known species belonging to the naked cephalopoda, vary in 

 length, as a general rule, from two or three to eight or ten inches ,• 

 although a few species, in warm seas, attain to a length of two or 

 even three feet. From time to time, however, strange accounts of 

 gigantic cuttle-fishes have obtained, as in the case of the fabulous 

 sea-serpent, a wide notoriety, and even a certain amount of credence, 

 though finally regarded as altogether unworthy of belief. Many of 

 these narrations, as that of the celebrated Krahen of Denis de Mont- 

 fort, are evidently gross exaggerations, if not absolutely imaginary ; 

 but, at the same time, the existence of dibranchiate cephalopoda 

 of large bulk, and of species as yet unknown to science, appears to 

 be substantially true. The dead form discovered during the voyage 

 of Quoy and G-aimard, and to which a weight of 224 fts., was 

 attributed — the huge arms and other portions of a cephalopod found 

 by Professor Steenstrup — and the large speeies, estimated to measure 

 six feet in length, seen during the voyage of Banks and Solander— 



