Connecticut western news., 1875-07-02
, The Latest Cuttle Fish.

have been fortunate enough, says a
 St. Johns (N. F.) correspondent of the l World, to obtain the beak and one
 sucker of splendid specimen of the devl-fish, or colossal cephalopods of
 the North Atlantic" as Professor Verrill
 has designated them in the Anaerican | N0tatr0l5st. Not winter passes now
 without one or more individuals of the race being cast ashore. In 1873 I got possession of the most complete speei-
 men yet obtained, which Professor Yer Till has elaborately. described, with illus trative drawings in the American
 Ntat,tra1ist, vol. H., 1875, and also in the
 Amaer5cd11 Journal ,6f Science and Arts, vol. ix., February, 1875. The new specimen, of which unfortunately I was only able to obtain the fragments named, was cast ashore at Grand Bank, Fortune bay, in December last. There is little intercourse between that locality and the capital in winter, owing to the preva- lence of ice, and it was not till March that news of the matter arrived here. I wrote immediately to the magistrate of the district, George Simms, Esq.,, re- questing him to collect full particulars, and if possible procure for me some DOT tions of the great squid, should any have been preserved. He informed me, in re- ply, that he had not seen the fish entire, as before his arrival at the spot where it came ashore portions of it had been car ried off by the fishermen as food for their dogs. He made 8 careful measure
 ment, however, of the portions that re- mained, and found that the tentacula, or two longest arms, were twenty-six feet in length and sixteen inches in cir conference, and the eight shorter arms each eight and half feet in length, and nearly of the same circumference. The head or central part, from which the arms radiate, measured thirty-six inches in circumference. The length of body from junction with the head he found to be ten feet the tail was one-third the length of the body, or three feet four inches. Allowing eight inches as the length of the head, the entire length of this specimen was fourteen feet, so that it IS one of the largest specimens yet actually seen and measured, being twice the length of the one I obtained in 1873. The circumference of the body is not given, but at the thickest part it could not have been less than ten feet, judging by the proportions of my speci- men. The arms tapered at he7point to an inch in circumference. MT. Simms was able to obtain the beak and one large sucker, which he'ihas sent me- The sucker is an inch in diameter. The beak is large and powerful, shaped pre- cisely as the jaws which Professor Yer, Till has figured in his able articles above referred to. It is a special cause of grief to your correspondent that this fine specimen was not preserved for scientific. examination. Great interest ., among naturalists has been awakened regarding these gigantic cephalopods since the dis covery of my Logic bay specimen, and this interest will be greatly deepened by Professor Verrill's papers, in which he has made an. exhaustive study of the subject as far as present data enable him to proceed. It is evident that the seas around these shores are a favorite hobi- tat of these creatures, and T am in hopes of.yet securing finer specimen than, any, previously obtained. The one which came ashore at Grand Bank-with tslong arms of twenty six feet and eight shorter ones of eight and half feet, covered with twelve hundred suckers, it's fourteen-foot body and powerful beak-would have been an awkward customer to meet, and once folded in it's clammy embrace escape would have been impossible.