6 
specimen has been found drifting in the sea between Shetland and 
the Faroe Islands^). 
That the Architeiithus is really seized by denticete whales is 
well known, not exactly as regards the Caaing Whale, but as regards 
the Cachalot-). One of the excellent chapters in the interesting book 
by the English esthetic author Frank T. Bullen: “The cruise of 
the Cachalot“ — an account based upon the author’s own experi- 
ences as a seaman onboard a whaleship—depicts with the trustworthy 
stamp of personal experience the despairing struggle of a gigantic 
squid to free itself from the attack of the Cachalot. I shall extract 
from it the following lines: “A very large sperm whale was locked 
in deadly conflict with a cuttle-fish, or squid, almost as large as 
himself, whose interminable tentacles seemed to enlace the whole 
of his great body. The head of the whale especially seemed a 
perfect net-work of writhing arms — naturally, 1 suppose, for it 
appeared as if the whale had the tail part of the mollusc in his 
jaws, and, in a business-like, methodical way, was sawing through 
it . All around the combatants were numerous sharks, like 
jackals around a lion, ready to share the feast, and apparently 
assisting in the destruction of the huge cephalopod. So the titanic 
struggle went on _“ 
Thus it is here described how the cuttlefish encircles the whale’s 
body, and especially its head, with its tentacles, naturally leaving 
impressions of the horny points of the suckers in the skin of the 
whale. 
h The author assisted in taking on board this specimen while taking part 
in the Atlantic cruise of the “Michael Sars“ in the summer of 1902. It 
was found dead but quite fresh, floating on the surface of the sea in 62" 
31' N. Lat. 3" 38' W. Long. The length of the body along the back was 
75 cm., the distance between the top of the long tentacles and the end 
of the body was about 5. meters. The specimen was handed over to 
Bergen’s Museum. 
See for instance: “Notes sur un cachalot“ par S. A. S. le prince Albert 
de Monaco in Bulletin du Muséum d’histoire naturelle, I, 1895, p. 
305; F. T. Bullen: “The sperm whale and its food“ in Nature, vol. 54, 
1896, p. 102; and the papers of Koefoed and Hjort cited in the fol¬ 
lowing. 
•") The cruise of the “Cachalot“ round the world after sperm whales, by 
Fran k T. B u 11 e n. 10. impr. London 1902 (pp. 143 — 144). 
