GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISH. 
127 
Holdsworth has personally assured the author that he has 
himself witnessed this proclivity of the toothed whales, and 
additional testimony might be produced to the same purpose. 
So large a mass of evidence has now been laid before our 
readers that to further augment it would be needless. Summing 
up the whole, we are forced to admit that this group of Cepha- 
lopodous molluscs contains representatives of enormous dimen- 
sions distributed in the seas throughout the globe, and embracing 
in all probability many distinct genera and species. Such is the 
formidable size of these giant Calamaries that they vie even 
with the Cetacea in magnitude, and in this respect yield to no 
other animals now existing. It further appears obvious that 
the numerous tales and traditions that have been current from 
the earliest times, concerning the existence of colossal species 
of this race, though in some instances unscrupulously exag- 
gerated, had in all probability in the main a groundwork of 
fact, and can be no longer passed over as the mere fabrications 
of a disordered mind, as we have been hitherto inclined to 
accept them. 
