THE KRAKEN, 
3 
collecting evidence relating to the " great beasts " living in 
" the great and wide sea," was influenced, as he tells us, by 
" a desire to extend the popular knowledge of the glorious 
works of a beneficent Creator." He gave too much 
credence to contemporary narratives and old traditions of 
floating islands and sea monsters, and to the superstitious 
beliefs and exaggerated statements of ignorant fishermen : 
but if those who ridicule him had lived in his day and amongst 
his people, they would probably have done the same ; for 
even Linnaeus was led to believe in the Kraken, and cata- 
logued it in the first edition of his ' Systema Naturae,' as 
*Sepia Microcosmos! He seems to have afterwards had 
cause to discredit his information respecting it, for he 
omitted it in the next edition. The Norwegian bishop was 
a conscientious and painstaking investigator, and the tone of 
his writings is neither that of an intentional deceiver nor of 
an incautious dupe. He diligently endeavoured to separate 
the truth from the cloud of error and fiction by which it 
was obscured ; and in this he was to a great extent success- 
ful, for he correctly identifies, from the vague and perplex- 
ing descriptions submitted to him, the animal whose habits 
and structure had given rise to so many terror-laden 
narratives and extravagant traditions. 
The following are some of his remarks on the subject of 
this gigantic and ill-defined animal. Although I have 
greatly abbreviated them, I have thought it right to quote 
them at considerable length, that the modest and candid 
spirit in which they were written may be understood : * 
" Amongst the many things," he says, " which are in the ocean, 
and concealed from our eyes, or only presented to our view for a 
few minutes, is the Kraken. This creature is the largest and most 
surprising of all the animal creation, and consequently well de- 
* ' Natural History of Norway,' vol. ii., p. 210. 
B 2 
