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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
socket, lie considers to belong to a species identical with Pro- 
fessor Steenstrup’s Architeuthis dux. 
The mutilated carcass of a huge Cuttle-fish was stranded in 
1860 or 1861, between Hillswick and Scalloway on the west 
coast of Scotland. The mantle-sac measured 7 ft. long, the 
tentacles 16 ft., and the ordinary arms half that length; one 
of the suckers examined by Professor Allman was three quarters 
of an inch in diameter.* 
In December 1861, M. Bouyer, commandant of the French 
corvette Alecton , and M. Sabin Berthelot, French Consul at the 
Canary Islands, communicated to the Paris Academy of Sciences, 
through M. Vaillant, the description of a gigantic Calamary, 
encountered by that vessel between the islands of Madeira and 
Teneriffe. This monster was found floating at the surface of 
the water about mid-day, November 30, of the same year, and 
the vessel being stopped, immediate steps were taken to effect 
its capture. A volley of bullets which was first discharged into 
it caused the animal to plunge beneath the ship ; appearing 
shortly after on the other side, it was attacked with both 
harpoons and fire-arms, neither of which, however, appeared to 
make much impression on its soft yielding flesh. After diving 
beneath the surface and reappearing several times, one ball 
struck it with marked effect, the creature immediately dis- 
charging a quantity of foam mixed with blood, and at the 
same time a strong musky odour m ade itself perceptible to all 
on board ; the sailors were most anxf ous to lower the boats and 
carry on the attack at closer quarters, but Captain Bouyer for- 
bade this, fearing the creature’s powerful arms might seize and 
capsize them. At this point a noose was successfully cast over 
the animal’s body, but owing to the smoothness of the latter, 
failed to tighten upon it until it arrived at the posterior ex- 
tremity, just where the broad expanding fins took their origin. 
Efforts were now made to hoist the monster upon deck, and the 
greater portion of its body was already out of the water, when 
the enormous weight caused the rope to cut the animal com- 
pletely through ; the posterior part with the fins was brought on 
board, but the remainder, with the head and arms, disappeared 
beneath the waves, and was not seen again. Altogether the 
chase after this monster lasted more than three hours ; the dura- 
tion of the adventure giving time for one of the officers on board, 
M. Bodolphe, to make a hasty sketch of the scene, which was 
submitted to the members of the Academy with MM. Bouyer 
and Berthelot’s account ; a fac-simile of the same is reproduced 
to accompany this article. One circumstance of note in asso- 
ciation with M. Bodolphe’s drawing is the non-representation of 
Gwyn Jeffreys’ “British Conchology,” vol. v., p. 124. 
