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Show 178 MR. W. S. KENT ON A GIGANTIC CEPHALOPOD. [Mar. 3, 2. CROCODILUS MADAGASCARIENSIS, Gray, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 145, pi. xxiii. Madagascar. B.M. 2. PHILAS. Head elongate, slender, conical. Forehead flat before and between the eyes, with a slight convex narrow ridge in front to the middle of the beak; face rounded on the sides from the central line; nose sub cylindrical. PHILAS JOHNSTONI. (Plate XXVII.) Crocodilus johnstoni, Krefft, MS. Crocodilus johnsoni, Krefft, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 334. Tomistoma krefftii, Gray, MS., fide Krefft. Australia, Queensland, Cardwell (Johnston, Bloxland, Krefft). The head nearly twice and a half as long as broad; specimen 7 feet long. 5. Note on a Gigantic Cephalopod from Conception Bay, Newfoundland. By W . SAVILLE K E N T , F.L.S., F.Z.S., some time Assistant in the Natural-History Department of the British Museum, and late Curator of the Brighton Aquarium. [Received February 17, 1874.] The 'American Sportsman' for December 6, 1873, for which I am indebted to the Editor for a separate copy sent me, contains a well authenticated account of a huge Cephalopod lately encountered in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, one of the longer arms of the same having been secured and deposited in the St. John's Museum. The full description of the monster as contributed by the Rev. M. Harvey of St. John's, may be thus condensed^ :- Two fishermen, while plying their vocation off Great Belle Island, Conception Bay, October 26, 1873, suddenly discovered, at a short distance from them, a dark shapeless mass floating on the surface of the water. Concluding that it was probably part of the cargo of some wrecked vessel, they approached, anticipating a valuable prize, and one of them struck the object with his boat-hook. Upon receiving the shock the dark heap became suddenly animated, and spreading out discovered an intelligent face, with a pair of large prominent ghastly eyes, which seemed to gleam with intense ferocity, the creature at the same time exposing to view, and opening, its parrot-like beak with an apparently hostile and malignant purpose. The men were petrified with terror, and for a moment so fascinated by the horrible sight as to be powerless to stir. Before they had time to recover their presence of mind, the monster, now but a few * See also Mr. Harvey's letter to Principal Dawson, reprinted in the ' Annals & Magazine of Natural History' for January 1874. |