The record-union., 1897-03-19


being that as far as his description
not appear to have exaggerated at all.
A MOST AWFUL FISH.
He records how he became acquaint-
ed with a master mariner of excellent
repute, who had made many voyages
to the Indies for the Gothenburg Com
pany, by name Jean Magnus Dens. To
this worthy, sailing his ship along the
African coast, there fell a stark calm,
the which he, even as do prudent ship
masters to-day, turned to good ac-
count, by having his men scrape and
cleanse the outside of the vessel, being
suspended near the water by stages for
that purpose. While thus engaged,
suddenly there arose from the blue
placidity beneath a most awful mon
strous" cuttlefish, which threw its arms
over the stage, and Selling two of the
men, drew them below the surface.
Another man, who was climbing on
board, was also seized, but after a
fearful struggle his shipmates suc-
| ceeded in rescuing him. That same
night he died in raving madness. The
! mollusk's arms We're stated to be at the
base Of the bigness of a foreyard
(vergue dun mat de masaine), while
the suckers were as large as ladies
| (cueillier a pot).
Another story nara ted by Denys de
Montfort relates how a vessel was at
tackled by huge "poulp,' which en-
deavored to drag down vessel and all,
but the crew, assisted by their patron,
st. Thomas, succeeded in severing SO
many of the monsters arms from his
body that he was fain to depart and
leave them in peace. In gratitude for
their marvellous deliverance they
caused an ex vote picture to be painted
of the terrible scene, and hung in their
parish church, for a testimony to the
mighty power OF the saint.
WHAT THE WHALES SHOW.
In the Phil. Trans. of the Royal So
| ciety DR.. Schewediawer tells of sperm
whale being hooked (sic) which had in
! its mouth a tentaculum of the sepia
| octopodia. twenty-seven feet long. This
was not it's entire length for one end
was partly digested, so that when in
| stu it must have been a great deal
! longer. When we consider, says the
| learned doctor, the enormous bulk of
| here spoken of belonged, we shall cease
| to wonder at the common saying of
sailors that the cuttlefish is the largest
in the ocean.
| In Figuier's ocean World" he quotes
| largely from Michelet, that great au-
thority on the mollusca giving at length
the latter's highly poetical description
| of the vast family of 'murderous suck
ers," as he terms the cephalopoda.
| In the same work, too, will be found
| a most matter of-fact description and
illustration Of the meeting Of the
French corvette Alecton with an i'm
mense calamary between Teneriffe and
Madeira This account was furnished
by Lieutenant Bayer to the Academic
des Sciences, and is evidently a sober
record of fact. The monsters body was
| hauled alongside, and an attempt was
made to secure it by means of hawser
| passed around it, but of course, as soon
| as any strain was put upon the rope,
| 1t drew completely through the soft
| gelatinous carcass, severing 1t in two.
The length of the creatures body was
| fifty feet. But NJ. Figuier is not salts
| fed; he says that even this account
|
| willing is he to believe in a monster
! that would evidently settle the great
kraken and seaserpent question once
! for all.
Even DR.. Solander and Mr.. Banks.
| after finding a cuttlefish six feet long
| floating upon the sea near Cape Horn,
which was quite beyond all their pre-
vious experience, could not bring them
| selves to believe in the existence of any
! larger. So at the beginning Of this
century, while people had largely con-
| scented to accept the seaserpent, they
would have none of the kraken or any
thing which might reasonably explain
! the persistence of evidence about him
| But had these scientific skeptics only
! taken the trouble to interview the
/ crews of the South Sea whalers that
sailed in such a goodly fleet from our
| ports fifty years ago, they must have
| been convinced that, SO far from the
kraken being a myth, he is one of
! the most substantial of facts, unless
/ indeed, they believed that all whalemen
/ were in conspiracy to deceive them
. on that point.
Any thoughtful observer who has
! ever seen a school of sperm whales
/ numbering several hundred and I'M
derstood from the configuration of their
/ jaws, that they must of necessity feed
upon large creatures. can never after
/ feel difficulty in believing that, in order
1 to supply the enormous demand for
/ food made by these whales their prey
/ must be imposing in size and abund-
! ant in quantity.
IN first inc aTa4
on terms of mutual destruction, 1 knew
nothing of his habits and cared less But
! seeing him, when wounded vomiting
/ huge masses of white substance, my
curiosity was aroused, and when | saw
l that these masses We're parts of a
| mighty creature almost identical in
structure with the small squid so often
| picked up on deck, where it falls in its
| frantic efforts to escape from dolphins
| (coryphaena), albacore, or bonito, my
amaZement was great. Some of these
| fragments We're truly heroic in size
Surgeon Beale, in his book on the
| sperm whale. only credits the cachalot
! with being able to swallow man, but
with all the respect due TO SO great a
| writer / am bound 10 say that such
masses as 1 have seen elected from the
stomach Of the dying whale could only
| have entered the throat to which a man
was as pill is to US We can, however
only speak of what We may have seen,
and perhaps Dr.. Beale had never seen
such large pieces elected.
\ FEARFUL FIGHT.
| In an article in Nature of June T.
1896. / have described an encounter
which / witnessed between a gigantic
] sQuid and a sperm whale In the Straits