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Show 1874.] MR. W. S. KENT ON CERTAIN GIGANTIC CEPHALOPODS. 489 14. A further Communication upon certain Gigantic Cephalopoda recently encountered off the Coast of Newfoundland. By W . SAVILLE K E N T , F.L.S., F.Z.S. [Received May 18, 1874.] In my communication to the Zoological Society, dated the 17th of February last, a description is given of a gigantic Cephalopod lately encountered in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, and of which a tentacle 19 feet long is preserved in the St. John's Museum. Evidence is adduced at the same time of an enormous arm preserved in the British Museum and which probably belonged to an animal of equally large proportions. It is likewise proposed, in the same communication, to provisionally distinguish the Newfoundland example by the name of Megaloteuthis harveyi, both in acknowledgment of the services rendered to science by the Rev. M . Harvey by his energetic steps taken to preserve so valuable a trophy, and in consideration of the apparent absence of grounds for believing the same to be either generically or specifically identical with any form of its class hitherto described. In a short addendum, a brief announcement is made of a second colossal example, which became entangled in a herring-net in Logie Bay, Newfoundland, a few weeks later, and of which steps had been taken to secure the entire body. Since the date of this communication additional evidence has been produced in association with these two Newfoundland examples, as also with reference to other colossal specimens previously encountered in the same vicinity, which enables us to indicate, with greater certainty than heretofore, the position among other representatives of their tribe that these oceanic monsters probably occupy. The most important evidence being associated with the specimen from Logie Bay, we propose to make it the subject of our first attention. This example, as already observed, was enclosed in a herring-net some three miles from St. John's, the creature's arms becoming so entangled in the meshes of the net that its power of resistance was almost entirely annihilated; it nevertheless required the united efforts of three fishermen to finally overcome it; and it was not until the monster's head was severed from its body, that they were enabled to take possession of their prize. W h e n brought to shore this body or mantle-sac was found to measure over 7 feet, the sessile arms 6 feet, and the two tentacula as much as 24 feet in length. Photographs of these separate portions were taken; and the one embracing the head with the arms and tentacles, which gives an excellent idea of the gigantic proportions of this Cephalopod, was reproduced as a wood-engraving in the ' Field ' for January 31st *. The structure and mode of arrangement of the suckers on the tentacular club in this specimen, as shown by Mr. Harvey's descriptive text and the photographs accompanying it, indicate * Also in an article on "Gigantic Cuttlefish," by the present author, in the ' Popular Science Review ' for April 1874. PROC. ZOOL. Soc -1874, No. XXXII. 32 |