286 A. EF. Verrilli— Cephalopoda of North America, 
other devil-fish [No. 19] was cast ashore, was out in a boat 
with two other men; not far from shore they observed some 
bulky object, and, supposing it might be part of a wreck, they 
rowed toward it, and, to their horror, found themselves close to 
a huge fish, having large glassy eyes, which was making des- 
perate efforts to escape, and churning the water into foam by 
the motion of its immense arms and tail. It was aground and 
the tide was ebbing. From the funnel at the back of its head 
it was ejecting large volumes of water, this being its method 
of moving backward, the force of the stream, by the reaction 
of the surrounding medium, driving it in the required direc- 
tion. At times the water from the siphon was black as ink. 
‘Finding the monster partially disabled, the fishermen 
plucked up courage and ventured near enough to throw the 
grapnel of their boat, the sharp flukes of which, having barbed 
points, sunk into the soft body. To the grapnel they had at- 
tached a stout rope, which they had carried ashore and tied to 
' a tree, so as to prevent the fish from going out with the tide. 
It was a happy thought, for the devil-fish found himself effect- 
ually moored to the shore. His struggles were terrific as he 
flung his ten arms about in dying agony. The fishermen took 
care to keep a respectful distance from the long tentacles, which 
ever and anon darted out like great tongues from the central 
mass. At length it became exhausted, and as the water re- 
ceded it expired.” 
e body measured 20 feet from the beak to the extremity 
of the tail. The circumference of the body is not stated, but 
one of the tentacular arms measured 35 feet in length. : 
According to these measurements, this was the largest specl- 
men yet found, it being nearly twice as large as No. 
measured some portions with his own hand. He found that 
the body measured 15 feet from the beak to the end of the 
can ees ota e circumference of the body at 
its thickest part was 12 feet. He found only one of the short 
arms perfect, which was 16 feet in length, being five feet longer 
