THE FAIRY SAILOR AND HIS COUSINS. 



115 



The poulp, also called octopus (eight-footed), sometimes 

 attains a formidable size, and sailors relate terrible stories 

 of those found in the African seas. 

 According to Denys de Montfort, 

 Dens, a navigator, avowed that 

 while three of his men were en- 

 gaged in scraping the side of the 

 ship, one of these monsters reached 

 up from the water its long and 

 flexible arms, and drew two of the 

 men into the sea. One was never 

 rescued, and the other, after his es- 

 cape, became delirious and died. 

 This was probably a " sailor's 



yarn, 



since the Frenchman who 



narrated it afterward represented 

 a " Kraken octopod" in the act of 

 scuttling a three-master (Fig. 45), 

 and told M. Defrance that, if this F 



wptp "swnllmvpd " ho wrmlrl in hi«s chambered Shell (Ormoceras 



were swauowea, ne wouia, in nis Unui px um) ^ sh owin S a large 

 next edition, represent the monster annul ated central siphon. 

 embracing the Straits of Gibraltar, or capsizing a whole 

 squadron of ships. Little reliance as can be placed in the 



marvelous stories of "those who 

 go down to the sea in ships," it 

 is well authenticated that some 

 of these octopods attain fearful 

 dimensions, being the largest in- 

 vertebrates known. Milne-Ed- 

 wards, an eminent Parisian nat- 

 uralist, has expressed the con- 

 viction that the unexplored 

 depths of the ocean conceal the 

 forms of octopods that far surpass in magnitude any of 

 the species known to science. 



Fig. 48. Trocholites ammonius. A 

 coiled - chambered shell of the 

 Trenton period. 



