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ZOOLOGY. 121 
satisfy his curiosity pushed his boat alongside, and I believe 
struck at it with an oar or boat-hook, whereupon the creature’s fury 
seemed to be aroused, and it struck at the bottom of the bout with 
its beak, and immedistely afterward threw its monstrous tentacles 
over the boat, which probably it might have dragged to the bottom 
had not Picot with great presence of mind severed one (or more) of 
the tentacles with his axe. A part of this tentacle or sucking arm 
have now in my possession, immersed in spirits. I send you with 
this letter a couple of photographs of the said tentacle and a few 
of the small denticulated sucking cups, all of which I hope will 
reach you safely. ; 
Picot’s description of this great’ squid, cuttle or devil-fish is 
this. He represents the body of the animal to have been about 
sixty feet long, and its general diameter as not less than five 
feet. The breadth of the tail he represents as at least ten feet. 
- He states that when the creature found itself mutilated it made off 
backwards or tail foremost, after the manner of squids, dark- 
ening the water‘over a large space with inky emissions. The 
enormous proportions given above might appear to be exagger- 
ations, were they not to a great extent borne out by the fragment 
of the animal which was severed, and of which the photograph will 
‘ give you a fair idea. The tentacle measured, on the 31st of Oc- 
have measured nineteen feet previously. When it was first landed ` 
at a place called Portugal Cove, in Conception Bay and within nine 
miles of St. John, some six feet was cut off the inner end of this 
arm, and Picot asserts that the original incision was at least ten 
feet from its articulation with the b Accordingly the whole 
length of the said arm must have been from t irty-three to 
thirty-five feet. The beak or bill of the creature Picot described 
as being about the size of a six gallon keg. bee" 
The Rev. Mr. Gabriel now residing at Portugal Cove, but who 
formerly resided at a place called Lamalein on the south coast of 
the island, states that, in the winter of 1870 and 1871, two entire 
cuttle or devil-fish were stranded on the beach near that, place, 
which measured respectively forty and forty-seven feet. 
The man Picot says he saw the animal very distinctly for some 
` time after it had been mutilated, swimming stern foremost with its 
tail above the water’s edge, and that its general color wasa pale 
pinkish, resembling that of the common squid. 
` The follo 
wing is an exact copy of the memoranda I made on 
first inspecting this remarkable tentacle on the 31st of October. 
-two and one-half feet is flattened, and somewhat in shape like a 
-~ - narrow paddle, tapering toward the end to a sharpish point. The 
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