SPERM WHALE ? S FOOD. 
65 
alternate series, along the whole internal surface of the 
eight muscular feet, and he will have some idea of the 
formidable nature of the carnivorous onychoteuthis.” 
This species of cephalopod is thus armed with those 
kind of teeth at the termination of the tentacles, in order 
to secure the “ agile, slippery, and mucous-clad fishes’ 5 
on which it preys. And there is an instance recorded in 
Sir Grenville Temple’s Excursions in the Mediterranean 
by which we perceive that these terrible creatures some- 
times prey upon men ! “ In those shallow waters,” says 
Sir Grenville, “ are caught great quantities of fish, by 
forming curved lines or palisades some way out to sea, 
with palm branches, by which the fish that come up with 
the high w r ater are retained when it recedes. The horrid 
polypus, which is, however, greedily eaten, abounds, and 
some are of enormous size . They prove at times highly 
dangerous to bathers. 
<c An instance of this occurred two years since : a 
Sardinian captain, bathing at J erbeh, felt one of his feet 
in the grasp of one of these animals ; on this, with his 
other foot he tried to disengage himself, but this limb was 
immediately seized by another of the monster’s arms ; 
he then, with his hands, endeavoured to free himself, but 
these also, in succession, were firmly grasped by the 
polypus, and the poor man was shortly after found 
drowned, with all his limbs strongly bound together by 
the arms and legs of the fish ; and it is extraordinary, 
that where this happened, the water was scarcely four 
feet in depth.” 
Other species of these surprising animals, as the 
