OMMATOSTREPIilD^. 31 



STH^NOTEUTHis, Yerrill, 1880. (Xiphoteutliis, Owen, 1881.) 

 Distinguished by its large caudal fin, and by having a broad, 

 membranous web along the lower side of the lateral arms, outside 

 the suckers. 0. megaptera^ Verrill, Nova Scotia. 



Architeuthts, Steenstrup, 185T. 



Syn. — Megaloteuthis, Kent ; Dinoteuthis, More, 18T5. Mou- 

 chezia, Yelain, 1818. 



Distr. — 9 sp. IST. Atlantic Ocean, Alaska, Indian Ocean. 



A number of gigantic cephalopods, allied to Ommatostrephes, 

 have been described and referred to new genera, as above, prin- 

 cipally on considerations of size. Yerrill says that Architeuthis 

 ma}' be best distinguished from Ommatostrephes by the presence 

 on the club of an irregular group of small, smooth-rimmed 

 suckers, intermingled with rounded tubercles on each arm, the 

 suckers on one arm corresponding with the tubercles of the other, 

 so that by them, the two arms may be firmly attached together 

 and thus used in concert. 



In the Manual of Gonchology, vol. i, pp. 14-91, I have given 

 detailed accounts of some of the enormous squids found princi- 

 pally in the North Atlantic Ocean. The celebrated Kraken, an 

 imaginary sea-monster, doubtless originated in the marvelous 

 tales of an uneducated people who had seen some of these squids : 

 so circumstantial and so well-believed was the account of the 

 Kraken, that Linnasus found a place for it in his " Systema." 

 Scared}^ less marvelous are the well-authenticated accounts of 

 some of these monsters encountered in modern times. The fol- 

 lowing was published in The Zoologist, June, 1815 : 



Capture of an enormous Cuttle-fish off Boffin Island, on 

 THE coast op Connemara (Ireland). — On Monday last, the crew 

 of a curragh,* consisting of three men, met with a strange adven- 

 ture northwest of Boffin Island. Having shot their spillets (or 

 long lines) in the morning, they observed to seaward a great 

 floating mass, surrounded by gulls ; the}' pulled out, believing it 

 to be a wreck, but, to their great astonishment, found it to be a 

 cuttle-fish of enormous proportions, and lying perfectly still, as 

 if basking on the surface of the water. A knife was the only 

 weapon on board. The cuttle is much prized as a bait for coarse 

 fish, and the crew resolved to secure at least a portion of it. 

 Considering the great size of the monster, and knowing the 

 crushing and holding powers of the arms, open hostility could 

 not be resorted to, and the fishermen shaped their tactics diflfer- 

 eutl}'. Paddling up with caution, a single arm was suddenl}' 

 seized and lopped off. The cuttle, hitherto at rest, became 

 dangerously active now, and set out to sea at full speed in a 



"'■" A large kind of coracle made with wooden libs, and covered with 

 tarred canvas. 



