36 OMMATOSTREPHIDiE. 



Frequentl}^ two jigs are managed, one in each hand. The squid 

 merely clasps his tentacles around the jig, and doubtless the pain 

 from the sharp pins induces him to escape instantly, but the 

 fisherman, who is constantly jerking the jig up and down, pulls 

 in as rapidly as possible, entangling the animal's arms among the 

 pins and drawing him through the water so fast that escape is 

 impossible. The instant he emerges from the water he contracts 

 his body, discharging through his siphon a jet of salt water. 

 This is followed by a sucking in of the air by successive respi- 

 ratory acts, till in its middle portion his cylindrical body has 

 become almost spherical. By a second contraction the squid 

 now ejects from his siphon a stream of his black inky secretion. 

 Not unfrequently the luckless fisherman has not the squid 

 unhooked before this discharge takes place and may receive the 

 inky stream full in the face. The scene when the squid are thick 

 is really exciting ; the streams rising here and there, in twenty 

 directions at once, point out the rapidity of the catch, and the 

 monotonous noise of the squirt is only varied by an occasional 

 murmur of discontent froin this or that unfortunate as he lifts 

 his querulous voice. The squid usually sell at from twenty-five 

 to forty cents per hundred. The number used by a single vessel 

 in onl}^ two months is astonishing. Our vessel, a small one, 

 made three " baitings," fishing each time about two weeks and 

 used in that time 80,000 of the squid. 



A species of Ommatostrephes is extensively fished in Japan. 

 Mr. Arthur Adams relates that off" Nisi-Bama in the Oki Islands, 

 he saw a number of lights moving upon the surface of the water, 

 in all directions, which he found were used to attract the cephalo- 

 pods to the surface; where they were secured by a jig, an iron 

 shank terminated by a cii'cle of recurved hooks. Mr. Adams 

 visited a small fishing village near Hakodadi, where he saw hun- 

 dreds of thousands of squids, cleaned and stretched on bamboo- 

 sticks, suspended on lines to dry in the sun and air. 



HYALOTEUTHis, Gray, 1849. Body transparent, tubercular be- 

 neath ; one or two cups on the second pair of sessile arms larger. 

 Distr. — The only species is from the West Indies. 



MOROTEUTHis, Verrill, 1882. Pen long, narrow, thin, terminating 

 posteriorly in a conical, hollow, many-ribbed, oblique cone, which 

 is inserted into the oblique anterior end of a long, round, tapering, 

 acute, solid cartilaginous terminal cone composed of concentric 

 layers, and corresponding to the solid cone of Belemnites in 

 position and relation to the true pen ; elliptical connective carti- 

 lages on the base of the siphon ; nuchal, longitudinal crests three, 

 much as in Ommatostrephes ; eyelids with a distinct sinus ; 

 caudal fin large, broad, spear-shaped; ventral arms with smooth- 

 rimmed suckers at the base. Rest of armature unknown. M. 

 robusta, Verrill. 



