SEPIAD^. — CUTTLE. 1(59 



day, on the coast of Normandy, state that the polypus, 

 •which they call chairou, is a most formidable enemy to 

 swimmers and divers, for when it has embraced any of 

 the limbs with its tentacles, it adheres with such tena- 

 city^ that it is quite impossible for a person to disengajje 

 himself, or to move any of his limbs. 



A friend told me, that on his voyage to Ceylon, many 

 years ago, he used to beguile the time by fishing, and 

 once he caught a huge cephalopod. "When it was hauled 

 on board, it stuck and clung with such tenacity to the 

 deck and ropes, that it could not be pulled oflF, and was 

 at last cut to pieces with a hatchet. 



M. Flourens communicated to the French Academy 

 an account of an enormous specimen which was seen by 

 Lieutenant Bouger, forty leagues north of TenerifFe. It 

 appeared to be about twelve to fifteen metres in length 

 (from thirty-one to forty-six feet) , its body of a reddish 

 colour, and shaped like a horn. The widest part was 

 about two yards in diameter. M. Moquin-Tandon ob- 

 serves that the fishermen of the Canaries often met with 

 these huge monsters, exceeding one or even two yards 

 in length, but they were afraid to attack them.* 



A sailor who had seen some very large ones at Ber- 

 muda, and had heard of people being attacked by them 

 whilst bathing, told me that he had ever after felt shy of 

 bathing in the sea, and that even the thoughts of them 

 made him shudder. 



The Norwegian Kraken, Kraxen, or Krabben, was 

 held to belong to the Cephalopods, and old Eric Pout- 

 oppidan, a Norwegian bishop, describes it as " an animal, 

 the largest in creation, whose body rises above the 

 surface of the water like a mountain, and its arms like 

 * ' Intellectual Observer,' toI. i. pp. 82-83. 



