164 PROF. OWEN ON NEW AND RARE CEPHALOPODA. 
suckers the specimen agreed with the Loliginide, in which family Ommastrephes illece- 
brosa', O. pelagicus”, and O. vanicoriensis® repeat the character of the posterior con- 
fluent fins (“ mit einander verwachsene Flossen am Hinterleib”’). 
In portions of a similarly large Squid exposed for sale in the Yedo fish-market 
Dr. Hilgendorf subsequently noticed the thickened end of the two longest arms (“das 
verdichte Endstiick der beiden lingsten Arme,” /. ¢. p. 67); and, concluding that such 
arms could not belong to a species of Ommastrephes, he proposes for the great Japanese 
Squid, to which he assumes them to belong, the generic name Megateuthis. But it 
may be questioned whether this enlargement of the ventral arms may not exemplify a 
sexual rather than a generic character’; no other is assigned save that of size. 
The following admeasurements are given of the original subject :— 
centim. 
From the hind end of the mantle to its fore border along the back . . 186 
Length of the longest of the eight arms. . . ....... ~~. 197 
The extreme size assigned by Aristotle to one of his Walakia is to a Decapod; and 
this squares in the main with that of Cook’s Hooked Squid; the brief notice *, as usual, 
favourably contrasts with the marvellous Cuttles of his uncritical successor Pliny. 
Any notice of Cuttlefish seen from the deck by seamen of any grade, the admiral 
inclusive, is unavailable for the prosaic naturalist, when no part of the alleged monster 
has been obtained, preserved, or described by a competent zoologist. ‘To him the report, 
for example, transmitted by the Minister of the Marine to the Academy of Sciences, 
Institute of France, and given in the ‘Comptes Rendus,’ 30th December, 1861, is 
unavailable by reason of the commander of the war-ship ‘ L’Alecton’ forbidding the 
means of capture —‘ Officiers et matelots me demandaient a faire amener un canot et a 
aller garrotter de nouveau l’animal et l’amener le long du bord. Ls y seraient peut- 
étre parvenus, mais je craignais que dans cette rencontre corps a corps le monstre ne 
lancdt ses longs bras armés de ventouses sur les bords du canot, ne le fit chavirer et 
n'étouffit peut-étre quelques matelots dans ses fouets redoutables chargés d’effluves 
électriques” (p. 1264). 
From the accompanying statement of the scene in the Pacific Ocean, its subject. seems 
certainly to have been a Cephalopod, not a Torpedo. The dimensions of the ‘‘ Poulpe 
monstrueux, qui nageait a la surface de l’eau, et mesurait de 5 métres a 6 metres de 
1 D’Orb. ut supra, Loligo, pl. ii. * Thid. pl. xviii. 3 Thid. pl. xxi. 
4 See Steenstrup in ‘ Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter,’ 5te Reeke, Bind iy., 4to, 1856. 
5 ot redOor KaNOUpEVoL ExT peilous ylyvorra yup Kal TévTe THXEwY 70 péyeOos.”—Arist. Hist. Animal. 
lib. iv. cap. 1.8. But the so-called Squids (Loliginide) are much the largest (of the Mollia or Cephalopods) ; 
some eyen attain the length of 5 cubits,” probably equiyalent to 7 feet 6 inches English, The Greek zijxus is 
usually taken at 10} inches, 
