MOLLUSCS. Z11 



" The Monster Described. 



"This Monster was taken at Dingle-I-cosh in the county of Kerry, being driven 

 up by a great storm in the Month of October last 1673 ; having two heads, one great 

 head (out of which spring a little head two foot, or a yard from the great head) with 

 two great eyes, each as big as a pewter dish, the length of it being about nineteen 

 foot, bigger in the body than any horse, of the shape represented by this figure, having 

 upon the great head ten horns, some of six some of eight or ten one of eleven foot 

 long, the biggest horns as big as a man's Leg, the least as big as his wrist, which 

 horns it threw from it on both sides ; And to it again to defend itself having two of 

 the ten horns plain, and smooth that were the middle and biggest horns, the other 

 eight had one hundred Crowns a peece, placed by two and two on each of them, in 

 all 800 crowns, each Crown having teeth, that tore anything that touched them, by 

 shutting together the sharp teeth, being like the wheels of a watch, the Crowns were 

 as big as a mans thumb or something bigger, that a man might put his finger in the 

 hollow part of them, and had in them something like a pearl or eye in the middle ; 

 over this Monster's back was a mantle of a bright Red Color, with a fringe round it, 

 it hung down on both sides like a Carpet on a table, falling back on each side, and 

 faced with white ; the crowns and mantle were glorious to behold : This monster 

 had not one bone about him, nor skin nor scales, or feet but had a smooth skin like a 

 man's belly. It swoom by the lappits of the mantle ; The little head it could dart 

 forth a yard from the great, and draw it in again at plesure, being like a hawks beak 

 and having in the little head two tongues by which it is thought it received all its 

 nourishment ; when it was dead and opened the liver wayed 30 pounds. The man 

 that took it came to Clonmel the 4th of this instant December, vvith two of the horns 

 in a long box with the little head, and the figure of the fish drawn on a painted-cloth, 

 which was the full proportion of it, and he went up to Dublin, with an intent to shew 

 it to the Lord Lieutenant." 



With our present knowledge it is easy to recognize this monster as one of the giant 

 squids, belonging, doubtless, to the genus Architeuthis. The whalers have long had 

 accounts of the sperm whale eating giant squid, pcrtions of the arms being vomited 

 by these animals in their death flurry, but science has recognized the existence of 

 these huge monsters for only a few years, and for the greatest j)ortion of our knowl- 

 edge we are indebted to Prof. Verrill. On our shores the first reliable account was 

 published in 1873, and merely described the jaws of a large individual found on the 

 Grand Banks. Since that time several specimens or parts of specimens have been 

 found, the number at present amounting to nearly thirty. These are at present 

 referred to the species Architeuthis princeps, A. harveyi, and A. megaptera. Some 

 five or six other species have been described from other parts of the world, but on our 

 coasts all the specimens as yet received have come from the Grand Banks, or New- 

 foundland. In shape, general appearance, and almost everything except size, they are 

 closely allied to the little species of Oinmastrephes, but in size the difference is enor- 

 mous. The Irish specimen of two hundred years ago had a length of thirty-one feet, 

 but apparently the tentacular arms were damaged. All of the specimens which have 

 as yet been examined by scientific men have been more or less imperfect. Yet some 

 of the measurements may prove interesting. One caught on the coast of Labrador, 

 and used as dog's meat, was said to have a total length of fifty-two feet, of which 

 thirty-seven belonged to the tentacular arms ; another, cast on shore at Catalina, New- 



