The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-01

complete success. On another occasion my trap brought up new crab, one of the largest ever known, "Geryon finn is," and there were sixty-four speci- mems of 1t. Curiously enough, several of them, which had not yet found the entrance of the trap when it was hauled up, made the whole voyage of many hundreds of fathoms clinging volunta- rily to the outside of the trap.
 Lately I have obtained a certain number of large animals living in these intermediate depths and belonging to the very interesting group of cepha- lopods, by examining the stomachs of several cetaceans who feed upon them. Since the discovery of this interesting fact, added to the scientific gear of my vessel a complete whaling arrange ment. This new method has given me the most remarkable animals of my whole collection; one especially, the 'Lepidoteuthis Grimaldi," can be clas- sified in no actually known species, ge- nus, or even family of his order. It
 was vomited in 1895, during the dying struggles of sperm whale, but had un- fortunately lost it's head by the last ad- ventures of it's life The fragment is about one yard in length, and the com plete animal must have measured over seven feet; adding, the arms, we get a monster of colossal strength.
 Its most remarkable feature is a cui- rass of large prominent scales which cover its visceral bag; these are quite unknown with animals of that order. The vomitings of the same sperm whale, who covered two acres of the sea with his blood, contained another immense cephalopod, a Cucioteuthis with arms as strong as a mans, and carrying suckers armed with claws as powerful as those of a tiger; this ami nal is furnished with luminous organs. In 1897 another large cetacean that I was attacking with my whaleboats vomited a large fragment of a cephalo- pod which was peculiar in being of viscid substance not unlike glycerine; no net could retain it, and we only se- cured 1t by dipping it up with a large tub as well as the mass of water in which it was floating. But it will be convenient to remind the reader that cetaceans divide themselves into two principal groups. One class, to which belongs the right whale or other ma rine mammals chased by whalers, feed upon very small animals that they ab- sorb simply by moving about with their mouths open. They have no is called whalebone
 Another group, to which belongs the sperm whale, is armed with powerful teeth, a single one weighing some times as much as six pounds. They live upon big prey, mostly cephalopods, as afore- said These cetaceans are ferocious
 while the others have much milder temper, and some of them, as the
 "Orca Gladiator" can be very danger
 ous to attack. Two years ago I chased school of three of these, just off the
 Monaco Rock, and very soon one was struck by my Whaler's harpoon.
 While it was ending with violent strug- gles, the two others came alongside the whaleboat and seemed willing to figfiht for their companion They swan around and around, sometimes so close
 that the men touched their enormous backs with their hands. I had to re- lease at once that boat, and for an hour we were (seventeen men and three boats) engaged in a most grand wrest- ling. The result was that a second orque was killed by spear stroke.
 If we sight some wreckage---as log or a barrel-we always find under it or near it fishes of a good size and of dif- ferent species that never seem to aban- don this guide that they have chosen, and that takes them across the Atlan- tic. They are very easily caught with a fish spear, and the tunny fish are hooked with a towline baited with a rough imitation of a squid. Many sail- ors wrecked on the Atlantic, and aban- doned for days and weeks on it's appa- rently uninhabted wilderness, have died of hunger among a most abundant
 and attainable food, and they could have been saved had they simply known it and possessed the very simple
 gear required. Therefore, I think that all the principal boats of ship ought to be permanently provided with a few lines and hooks and with fish spear. There is no very obvious explanation | of the fascination which any floating or drifting object seems to have for ma rine animals of various sorts. Even turtles, which are very stupid. and | sperm whales or other cetaceans, which | seem intelligent, are attracted by a buoy or by ship, and any kind of ap- | paratus brought up from the depth, even a cable end, is often accompanied by single fish or small companies, | which get hopelessly bewldered when the object disappears out of the water.