THE KRAKEN. 
49 
shorter, or pedal, and not one of the long, or tentacular, 
arms of the calamary to which it belonged. The relative 
length of the arms to that of the body and tentacles 
varies in different genera of the Teuthida^, and it is not 
impossible that this may be the case even in individuals 
of the same species. But, judging from the proportions 
of known examples, I estimate the length of the ten- 
tacles at 36 feet, and that of the body at from 10 to 
1 1 feet : total length 47 feet. The beak would probably 
have been about 5 inches long from hinge socket to point, 
and the diameter of the largest suckers of the tentacles 
about I inch. So much for De Montfort's "suckers as big 
as saucepan-lids." From a well defined fold of skin which 
spreads out from each margin of that surface of the arm 
over which the suckers are situated. Professor Owen has 
given to this calamary the generic name of Plectoteuthis, 
with the specific title of grandis to indicate its enormous 
size. No history relating to this interesting specimen has 
been preserved. No one knows its origin, nor when it was 
received, but Dr. Gray told me that he believed it came 
from the east coast of South America. It has, however, 
long formed part of the stores of the British Museum, and, 
although previously open to public view, was more recently 
for many years kept in the basement chambers of the old 
building in Bloomsbury, which were irreverently called by 
the initiated " the spirit vaults and bottle department," 
because fishes, mollusca, &c., preserved in spirits were 
there deposited. I hope the public will have greater 
facility of access to it in the new Museum. 
Here, then, in our midst, and to be seen by all who ask 
permission to inspect it, is, and has long been, a limb of a 
great cephalopod capable of upsetting a boat, or of hauling 
a man out of her, or of clutching one engaged in scraping 
E 
