90 COLOSSAL CUTTLEFISHES. 
ceived the following letter from Captain Atwood reiterating these 
and other facts :— 
** PROVINCETOWN, December 16, 1872. 
Dear Sir:— Your letter, asking me some questions about the 
size of the large squid of which I spoke, in my remarks at a late 
meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, was duly re- 
ceived. In regard to the large squid seen by whalers in eve 
ocean where sperm whales are found, I would say that I think 
some of them are very large. I have made but one whaling voyage, 
and that was in the Atlantic, when I was a boy fifteen years old. 
I have not seen a piece of large squid since. I think I did then 
see some heads that were at least ten inches in diameter. Some 
find no one who has measured them, therefore they cannot give 
me i ine definite in regard to their size. 
I the opinion of almost all whalemen that the sperm whale 
Rede. wholly on squid. have been informed by some of my 
neighbors (who are reliable), that they made a voyage in a 
schooner from this port, and when they were killing a large sperm 
whale, it threw up a shark some ten feet long. This is the only 
instance Pa I have ever heard of sperm whales eating anything 
but squi 
I a you to Lieut. Maury’s “ Sailing Directions,” in which he 
records several letters from whaling captains who have had much 
experience in the business, from whic make the following ex- 
tracts : — Captain. Daniel McKenzie of New Bedford says, “The 
principal article of food (and indeed the only one as far as I 
know) is squid ; the smaller kind they eat is found near the sur- 
face, and is from two to three feet in length; the larger kind, 
which probably have their haunts deep in the sea, must be of 
immense size: the flesh soft and of gelatinous substance. I have 
seen very large junks floating on the surface entirely shapeless.’ 
Captain Francis Post says ‘ Cuttle or a supposed to be the 
only food which sperm whales ever eat, are often found in shoal 
water; there is, however, a species of this. fish, the exact size of 
which is not know wn, but it is presumed to be large, as whales 
as large as the bulk of a barrel, and these in large quantities. so 
t the assertion of the Strast that the whale, though = 
largest of — is one of the smallest eaters, is untrue. 
pieces of squid are often seen floating on the sea, which ce 
consider ase por whale ground.’ Capt. Roys ears Z 
apt. 
_ Lieut. Maury, dated Hong Kong, January 19, 1851: ‘The 
_ whale is found in all fteictae: and in every sea; he feeds iad “a 
inanimate animal substance called a squid, which grows upon the 
bottom of the sea, and is never seen upon the surface, except 
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