42 THE UNIVERSE. 



Some antediluvian ammonites were of even more gigan- 

 tic proportions. Buffon speaks of one, tlie diameter of 

 which was equal to that of a carriage-wheel, and which 

 was used for a millstone. 



Finally, if the abysses of the sea do not harbour the 

 monsters Avith which the imagination of some chroniclers 

 has peopled them, we certainly sometimes discover in the 

 ocean molluscs of prodigious dimensions, the fleshy mass 

 of which is not less than five to six metres^ in length, with- 

 out reckoning the arms which crown the head. Such was 



23. Fossil Ammonites. 



the pol)T^3us {Sepia) Avhich the steamer Alecton met lately 

 (in 1861) between Madeira and the Canary Islands. Its 

 weight was estimated at more than 2000 kilogrammes,^ 

 but they could not attack it vigorously enough to capture 

 it, as Captain Bouyer was afraid it might upset the boats, 

 by clasping them in its formidable limbs armed with 

 suckers. It was impossible to get it except by piecemeal. 

 This encounter, which strongly impressed the sailor, led 

 him to end his narrative with these words. 



"Now, that I have seen this strange animal with my 

 own eyes I can no longer refuse credence to the tales of navi- 

 gators. I suspect the sea has not yet told all it has to tell, 

 and holds in reserve some remnants of its perished races; 

 or that, in its ever-active crucible, it still elaborates un- 

 heard-of forms, with which it may appal the mariner, and 

 supply a theme for mysterious legends of the ocean." 



' Sixteen to twenty feet. ° 4414 lbs. avoirdupois. 



