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[Illustration: THE SEA SERPENT, AS FIRST SEEN FROM H.M.S. 'DAEDALUS.'
_Frontispiece._]
(_International Fisheries Exhibition_ LONDON, 1883)
SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED
BY
HENRY LEE, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S.
SOMETIME NATURALIST OF THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM
AND
AUTHOR OF 'THE OCTOPUS, OR THE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND FACT'
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION
AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W.
1883
PREFACE.
As I commence this little history of two sea monsters there comes to my
mind a remark made to me by my friend, Mr. Samuel L. Clemens--"Mark
Twain"--which illustrates a feeling that many a writer must have
experienced when dealing with a subject that has been previously well
handled. Expressing to me one day the gratification he felt in having
made many pleasant acquaintances in England, he added, with dry humour,
and a grave countenance, "Yes! I owe your countrymen no grudge or
ill-will. I freely forgive them, though one of them did me a grievous
wrong, an irreparable injury! It was Shakspeare: if he had not written
those plays of his, I should have done so! They contain _my_ thoughts,
_my_ sentiments! He forestalled me!"
In treating of the so-called "sea-serpent," I have been anticipated by
many able writers. Mr. Gosse, in his delightful book, 'The Romance of
Natural History,' published in 1862, devoted a chapter to it; and
numerous articles concerning it have appeared in various papers and
periodicals.
But, for the information from which those authors have drawn their
inferences, and on which they have founded their opinions, they have
been greatly indebted, as must be all who have seriously to consider
this subject, to the late experienced editor of the _Zoologist_, Mr.
Edward Newman, a man of wonderful power of mind, of great judgment, a
profound thinker, and an able writer. At a time when, as he said, "the
shafts of ridicule were launched against believers and unbelievers in
the sea-serpent in a very pleasing and impartial manner," he, in the
true spirit of philosophical inquiry, in 1847, opened the columns of his
magazine to correspondence on this topic, and all the more recent
reports of marine monsters having been seen are therein recorded. To
him, therefore, the fullest acknowledgments are due.
The great cuttles, also, have been the subject of articles in various
magazines, notably one by Mr. W. Saville Kent, F.L.S., in the 'Popular
Science Review' of April, 1874, and a chapter in my little book on the
Octopus, published in 1873, is also devoted to them. In writing of them
as the living representatives of the kraken, and as having been
frequently mistaken for the "sea-serpent," my deductions have been drawn
from personal knowledge, and an intimate acquaintance with the habits,
form, and structure of the animals described. It was only by watching
the movements of specimens of the "common squid" (_Loligo vulgaris_),
and the "little squid" (_L. media_), which lived in the tanks of the
Brighton Aquarium, that I recognised in their peculiar habit of
occasionally swimming half-submerged, with uplifted caudal extremity,
and trailing arms, the fact that I had before me the "sea-serpent" of
many a well-authenticated anecdote. A mere knowledge of their form and
anatomy after death had never suggested to me that which became at once
apparent when I saw them in life.
It is a pleasure to me to acknowledge gratefully the kindness I have
met with in connection with the illustrations of this book. The
proprietors of the _Illustrated London News_ not only gave me permission
to copy, in reduced size, their two pictures of the _Daedalus_ incident,
but presented to me electrotype copies of all others small enough for
these pages--namely, "Jonah and the Monster," Egede's "Sea-Serpent," and
the Whale as seen from the _Pauline_. Equally kind have been the
proprietors of the _Field_. To them I am greatly indebted for their
permission to copy the beautiful woodcuts of the "Octopus at Rest," "The
Sepia seizing its Prey," and the arms of the Newfoundland squids, and
also for "electros" of the two curious Japanese engravings, all of which
originally appeared in their paper. From the _Graphic_ I have had
similar permission to copy any cuts that might be thought suitable, and
the illustrations of the sea-serpent, as seen from Her Majesty's yacht
_Osborne_ and the _City of Baltimore_, are from that journal. Messrs.
Nisbet most courteously allowed me to have a copy of the block of the
_Enaliosaurus_ swimming, which was one of the numerous pictures in Mr.
Gosse's book, published by them, already referred to. And last, not
least, I have to thank Miss Ellen Woodward, daughter of my friend, Dr.
Henry Woodward, F.R.S., for enabling me to better explain the movements
and appearances of the squids when swimming, and when raising their
bodies out of water in an erect position, by carefully drawing them from
my rough sketches.
HENRY LEE.
SAVAGE CLUB;
_July 21st, 1883_.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
_Frontispiece._--The Sea Serpent as first seen from H.M.S. _Daedalus_.
FIG. PAGE
1. Beak and Arms of a Decapod Cuttle 16
2. The Octopus (_Octopus vulgaris_) 18
3. The Cuttle (_Sepia officinalis_) 21
4. Hooked Tentacles of _Onychoteuthis_ 23
5. Japanese fisherman attacked by a Cuttle 29
6. Arms of a great Cuttle exhibited in a Japanese fish-shop 29
7. Facsimile of De Montfort's "_Poulpe colossal_" 32
8. Gigantic Calamary caught by the French despatch vessel
_Alecton_, near Teneriffe 39
9. Tentacle of a great Calamary (_Architeuthis princeps_)
taken in Conception Bay, Newfoundland 43
10. Head and Tentacles of a great Calamary (_Architeuthis
princeps_) taken in Logie Bay, Newfoundland 44
11. Jonah and the Sea Monster 55
12. Sea Serpent seizing a man on board ship 58
13. Gigantic Lobster dragging a man from a ship 58
14. Pontoppidan's "Sea Serpent" 63
15. The Animal drawn by Mr. Bing as having been seen by Egede 66
16. The Animal which Egede probably saw 67
17. The Sea Serpent of the Wernerian Society (_facsimile_) 69
18. A Calamary swimming at the surface of the sea 77
19. The Sea Serpent passing under the quarter of H.M.S.
_Daedalus_ 81
20. The Sea Serpent and Sperm Whale as seen from the _Pauline_ 91
21. The Sea Serpent as seen from the _City of Baltimore_ 93
22. The Sea Serpent as seen from H.M. yacht _Osborne_. Phase 1 94
23. The Sea Serpent as seen from H.M. yacht _Osborne_. Phase 2 94
24. Skeleton of the _Plesiosaurus_, restored by Mr. Conybeare 98
25. The Sea Serpent on the Enaliosaurian hypothesis 100
SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED.
THE KRAKEN.
In the legends and traditions of northern nations, stories of the
existence of a marine animal of such enormous size that it more
resembled an island than an organised being frequently found a place. It
is thus described in an ancient manuscript (about A.D. 1180), attributed
to the Norwegian King Sverre; and the belief in it has been alluded to
by other Scandinavian writers from an early period to the present day.
It was an obscure and mysterious sea-monster, known as the Kraken, whose
form and nature were imperfectly understood, and it was peculiarly the
object of popular wonder and superstitious dread.
Eric Pontoppidan, the younger, Bishop of Bergen, and member of the
Royal Academy of Sciences at Copenhagen, is generally, but unjustly,
regarded as the inventor of the semi-fabulous Kraken, and is constantly
misquoted by authors who have never read his work,[1] and who, one after
another, have copied from their predecessors erroneous statements
concerning him. More than half a century before him, Christian Francis
Paullinus,[2] a physician and naturalist of Eisenach, who evinced in his
writings an admiration of the marvellous rather than of the useful, had
described as resembling Gesner's 'Heracleoticon,' a monstrous animal
which occasionally rose from the sea on the coasts of Lapland and
Finmark, and which was of such enormous dimensions, that a regiment of
soldiers could conveniently manoeuvre on its back. About the same date,
but a little earlier, Bartholinus, a learned Dane, told how, on a
certain occasion, the Bishop of Midaros found the Kraken quietly
reposing on the shore, and mistaking the enormous creature for a huge
rock, erected an altar upon it and performed mass. The Kraken
respectfully waited till the ceremony was concluded, and the reverend
prelate safe on shore, and then sank beneath the waves.
[1] 'Natural History of Norway.' A.D. 1751.
[2] Born 1643; died 1712.
And a hundred and fifty years before Bartholinus and Paullinus wrote,
Olaus Magnus,[3] Archbishop of Upsala, in Sweden, had related many
wondrous narratives of sea-monsters,--tales which had gathered and
accumulated marvels as they had been passed on from generation to
generation in oral history, and which he took care to bequeath to his
successors undeprived of any of their fascination. According to him, the
Kraken was not so polite to the laity as to the Bishop, for when some
fishermen lighted a fire on its back, it sank beneath their feet, and
overwhelmed them in the waters.
[3] Olaus Magnus has sometimes been mistaken for his brother and
predecessor in the archiepiscopal see, Johan Magnus, author of a
book entitled 'Gothorum, Suevorumque Historia.' Olaus was the last
Roman Catholic archbishop of the Swedish church, and when the
Reformation, supported by Gustavus Vasa, gained the ascendancy in
Sweden, he remained true to his faith, and retired to Rome, where
he wrote his work, 'Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus,' Romae,
1555. An English translation of this book was published by J.
Streater, in 1658. It does not contain the illustrations.
Pontoppidan was not a fabricator of falsehoods; but, in collecting
evidence relating to the "great beasts" living in "the great and wide
sea," was influenced, as he tells us, by "a desire to extend the popular
knowledge of the glorious works of a beneficent Creator." He gave too
much credence to contemporary narratives and old traditions of floating
islands and sea monsters, and to the superstitious beliefs and
exaggerated statements of ignorant fishermen: but if those who ridicule
him had lived in his day and amongst his people, they would probably
have done the same; for even Linnaeus was led to believe in the Kraken,
and catalogued it in the first edition of his 'Systema Naturae,' as
'_Sepia Microcosmos_.' He seems to have afterwards had cause to
discredit his information respecting it, for he omitted it in the next
edition. The Norwegian bishop was a conscientious and painstaking
investigator, and the tone of his writings is neither that of an
intentional deceiver nor of an incautious dupe. He diligently
endeavoured to separate the truth from the cloud of error and fiction by
which it was obscured; and in this he was to a great extent successful,
for he correctly identifies, from the vague and perplexing descriptions
submitted to him, the animal whose habits and structure had given rise
to so many terror-laden narratives and extravagant traditions.
The following are some of his remarks on the subject of this gigantic
and ill-defined animal. Although I have greatly abbreviated them, I have
thought it right to quote them at considerable length, that the modest
and candid spirit in which they were written may be understood:[4]
"Amongst the many things," he says, "which are in the ocean, and
concealed from our eyes, or only presented to our view for a few
minutes, is the Kraken. This creature is the largest and most
surprising of all the animal creation, and consequently well
deserves such an account as the nature of the thing, according to
the Creator's wise ordinances, will admit of. Such I shall give at
present, and perhaps much greater light on this subject may be
reserved for posterity.
"Our fishermen unanimously affirm, and without the least variation
in their accounts, that when they row out several miles to sea,
particularly in the hot summer days, and by their situation (which
they know by taking a view of different points of land) expect to
find eighty or a hundred fathoms of water, it often happens that
they do not find above twenty or thirty, and sometimes less. At
these places they generally find the greatest plenty of fish,
especially cod and ling. Their lines, they say, are no sooner out
than they may draw them up with the hooks all full of fish. By this
they know that the Kraken is at the bottom. They say this creature
causes those unnatural shallows mentioned above, and prevents their
sounding. These the fishermen are always glad to find, looking upon
them as a means of their taking abundance of fish. There are
sometimes twenty boats or more got together and throwing out their
lines at a moderate distance from each other; and the only thing
they then have to observe is whether the depth continues the same,
which they know by their lines, or whether it grows shallower, by
their seeming to have less water. If this last be the case they
know that the Kraken is raising himself nearer the surface, and
then it is not time for them to stay any longer; they immediately
leave off fishing, take to their oars, and get away as fast as they
can. When they have reached the usual depth of the place, and find
themselves out of danger, they lie upon their oars, and in a few
minutes after they see this enormous monster come up to the surface
of the water; he there shows himself sufficiently, though his whole
body does not appear, which, in all likelihood, no human eye ever
beheld. Its back or upper part, which seems to be in appearance
about an English mile and a half in circumference (some say more,
but I chuse the least for greater certainty), looks at first like a
number of small islands surrounded with something that floats and
fluctuates like sea-weeds. Here and there a larger rising is
observed like sand-banks, on which various kinds of small fishes
are seen continually leaping about till they roll off into the
water from the sides of it; at last several bright points or horns
appear, which grow thicker and thicker the higher they rise above
the surface of the water, and sometimes they stand up as high and
as large as the masts of middle-sized vessels. It seems these are
the creature's arms, and it is said if they were to lay hold of the
largest man of war they would pull it down to the bottom. After
this monster has been on the surface of the water a short time it
begins slowly to sink again, and then the danger is as great as
before; because the motion of his sinking causes such a swell in
the sea, and such an eddy or whirlpool, that it draws everything
down with it, like the current of the river Male.
"As this enormous sea-animal in all probability may be reckoned of
the Polype, or of the Starfish kind, as shall hereafter be more
fully proved, it seems that the parts which are seen rising at its
pleasure, and are called arms, are properly the tentacula, or
feeling instruments, called horns, as well as arms. With these they
move themselves, and likewise gather in their food.
"Besides these, for this last purpose the great Creator has also
given this creature a strong and peculiar scent, which it can emit
at certain times, and by means of which it beguiles and draws other
fish to come in heaps about it. This animal has another strange
property, known by the experience of many old fishermen. They
observe that for some months the Kraken or Krabben is continually
eating, and in other months he always voids his excrements. During
this evacuation the surface of the water is coloured with the
excrement, and appears quite thick and turbid. This muddiness is
said to be so very agreeable to the smell or taste of other fishes,
or to both, that they gather together from all parts to it, and
keep for that purpose directly over the Kraken; he then opens his
arms or horns, seizes and swallows his welcome guests, and converts
them after due time, by digestion, into a bait for other fish of
the same kind. I relate what is affirmed by many; but I cannot give
so certain assurances of this particular, as I can of the existence
of this surprising creature; though I do not find anything in it
absolutely contrary to Nature. As we can hardly expect to examine
this enormous sea-animal alive, I am the more concerned that nobody
embraced that opportunity which, according to the following account
once did, and perhaps never more may offer, of seeing it entire
when dead."
[4] 'Natural History of Norway,' vol. ii., p. 210.
The lost opportunity which the worthy prelate thus lamented, with the
true feeling of a naturalist, was made known to him by the Rev. Mr.
Friis, Consistorial Assessor, Minister of Bodoen in Nordland, and Vicar
of the college for promoting Christian knowledge, and was to the
following effect:
"In the year 1680, a Krake (perhaps a young and foolish one) came
into the water that runs between the rocks and cliffs in the parish
of Alstaboug, though the general custom of that creature is to keep
always several leagues from land, and therefore of course they must
die there. It happened that its extended long arms or antennae,
which this creature seems to use like the snail in turning about,
caught hold of some trees standing near the water, which might
easily have been torn up by the roots; but beside this, as it was
found afterwards, he entangled himself in some openings or clefts
in the rock, and therein stuck so fast, and hung so unfortunately,
that he could not work himself out, but perished and putrefied on
the spot. The carcass, which was a long while decaying, and filled
great part of that narrow channel, made it almost impassable by its
intolerable stench.
"The Kraken has never been known to do any great harm, except,"
the Author quaintly says, "they have taken away the lives of those
who consequently could not bring the tidings. I have heard but one
instance mentioned, which happened a few years ago, near
Fridrichstad, in the diocess of Aggerhuus. They say that two
fishermen accidentally, and to their great surprise, fell into such
a spot on the water as has been before described, full of a thick
slime almost like a morass. They immediately strove to get out of
this place, but they had not time to turn quick enough to save
themselves from one of the Kraken's horns, which crushed the head
of the boat, so that it was with great difficulty they saved their
lives on the wreck, though the weather was as calm as possible; for
these monsters, like the sea-snake, never appear at other times."
Pontoppidan then reviews the stories of floating islands which suddenly
appear, and as suddenly vanish, commonly credited, and especially
mentioned by Luke Debes in his 'Description of Faroe.'
"These islands in the boisterous ocean could not be imagined," he
says, "to be of the nature of real floating islands, because they
could not possibly stand against the violence of the waves in the
ocean, which break the largest vessels, and therefore our sailors
have concluded this delusion could come from no other than the
great deceiver, the devil."
This accusation, the good bishop, in his desire to be strictly
impartial, will not admit on such hear-say evidence, but is determined
to, literally, "give the devil his due;" for he warns his readers that
"we ought not to charge that apostate spirit without a cause; for," he
adds, "I rather think that this devil who so suddenly makes and unmakes
these floating islands, is nothing else but the Kraken."
Referring to a monster described by Pliny, he repeats his belief that
"This sea-animal belongs to the Polype, or Star-fish species;" but he
becomes very much "mixed" between the _Cephalopoda_ and the _Asteridae_,
between the pedal segments, or arms, of the cuttle radiating from its
head, and the rays of a Star-fish radiating from a central portion of
the body. He evidently inclines strongly towards a particular Star-fish,
the rays of which continually divide and subdivide themselves, or, as he
describes it, "which shoots its rays into branches like those of trees,"
and to which he gave the name of "Medusa's Head," a title by which, in
its Greek form, _Gorgonocephalus_, it is still known to zoologists.
"These Medusa's Heads," he says, "are supposed by some seafaring people
here, to be the young of the Sea-Krake; perhaps they are its smallest
ovula." After considering other reports concerning the Kraken, he
arrives at the following definite opinion:
"We learn from all this that the Polype or Starfish have amongst
their various species some that are much larger than others; and,
according to all appearance, amongst the very largest inhabitants
of the ocean. If the axiom be true that greatness or littleness
makes no change in the species, then this Krake must be of the
Polypus kind, notwithstanding its enormous size."
His diagnosis is correct; but it is stated with a modesty which his
detractors would do well to imitate; and his concluding words on this
subject place him in a light very different from that in which he is
popularly regarded:
"I do not in the least insist on this conjecture being true," he
writes, "but willingly submit my suppositions in this and every
other dubious matter to the judgment of those who are better
experienced. If I was an admirer of uncertain reports and fabulous
stories, I might here add much more concerning this and other
Norwegian sea-monsters, whose existence I will not take upon me to
deny, but do not chuse, by a mixture of uncertain relations to make
such account appear doubtful as I myself believe to be true and
well attested. I shall therefore quit the subject here, and leave
it to future writers on this plan to complete what I have
imperfectly sketched out, by further experience, which is always
the best instructor."
It is easy to recognise in Pontoppidan's description of the Kraken, the
form and habits of one of the "Cuttle-fishes," so-called. The appearance
of its numerous arms, with which it gathers in its food, and which grow
thicker and thicker as they rise above the surface, is just what would
take place in the case of one of the pelagic species of these mollusks
raising its head out of the sea. The rendering of the water turbid and
thick by the emission of a substance which the narrator supposed to be
faecal matter, is exactly that which occurs when a cuttle discharges the
contents of the remarkable organ known as its ink-bag; and the strong
and peculiar scent mentioned as appertaining to it, is actually
characteristic of its inky secretion. The musky odour referred to, is
more perceptible in some species than in others. In one of the Octopods
(_Eledone moschatus_), it is so strong, that the specific name of the
animal is derived from it.
The ancient Greeks and Romans, who were well acquainted with the
various kinds of cuttles and regarded them all as excellent food, and
even as delicacies of the table, applied the word "polypus" especially
to the octopus. But Pontoppidan evidently uses it as descriptive of all
the cephalopods. It must not be forgotten, however, that when he wrote,
science was only slowly recovering from neglect of many centuries'
duration. In the enlightened times of Greece and Rome, natural history
flourished, and as in our day, attracted and occupied the attention of
the man of science, and afforded recreation to the man of business and
the politician. Aristotle wrote 322 years before the birth of Christ,
and his works are monuments of practical wisdom. When we consider the
period during which he lived, and the isolated nature of his labours,
and compare them with the information which he possessed, we are
astonished at his sagacity and the great scope and general accuracy of
his knowledge. Pliny, 240 years later, lived in times more favourable
for the cultivation of science; but with all his advantages made little
improvement on the work of the great master. And then, later still, the
sun of learning set; and there came over Europe the long night of the
dark ages which succeeded Roman greatness, during which science was
degraded and ignorance prevailed; and it is not till the middle of the
sixteenth century, that the zoologist finds much to interest and
instruct him. When we further reflect, that until within the past five
and twenty years--till our large aquaria were constructed--Aristotle's
knowledge of the habits and life-history of marine animals, and amongst
them the cephalopods, was incomparably greater and more perfect than
that possessed by any man who had lived since he recorded his
observations, we cannot help feeling that in some departments of
knowledge there is still lost ground to be recovered.
In the old days of the Caesars, a Greek or Roman house-wife who was
accustomed to see the cuttle, the squid, and the octopus daily exposed
for sale in the markets, would of course have laughed at the idea of
mistaking the one for the other; but there are comparatively few persons
in our own country, at the present day, except those who have made
marine zoology their study, whose ideas on the subject are not
exceedingly hazy. This want of technical knowledge is not confined to
the masses; but is common, if not general, amongst those who have been
well educated, and is frequently apparent even in leaders in the daily
papers--the productions, for the most part, of men of receptive minds,
trained discrimination, and great general knowledge. As the subject is
one in which I have long felt especial interest, I venture to hope that
I may succeed in making clear the difference between the eight-footed
octopus and its ten-footed relatives, and thus enable the reader to
identify the member of the family from which we are to strip the dress
and "make up" in which it masqueraded as the Kraken, and cause it to
appear in its true and natural form.
One of the great primary groups or divisions of the animal kingdom is
that of the soft-bodied mollusca; which includes the cuttle, the oyster,
the snail, &c. It has been separated into five "classes," of which the
one we have especially to notice is the _Cephalopoda_,[5] or
"head-footed,"--the animals belonging to it having their feet, or the
organs which correspond with the foot of other molluscs, so attached to
the head as to form a circle or coronet round the mouth. Some of these
have the foot divided into eight segments, and are therefore called the
_Octopoda_:[6] others have, in addition to the eight feet, lobes, or
arms, two longer tentacular appendages, making ten in all, and are
consequently called the _Decapoda_.
[5] From the Greek words _cephale_, the head; and _poda_, feet.
[6] From _octo_, eight; and _pous_ (_poda_), feet.
Of the ten-footed section of the cephalopods, there are four "families;"
two only of which exist in Britain--the _Teuthidae_, and the _Sepiidae_.
The _Teuthidae_ are the Calamaries, popularly known as "Squids," and are
represented by the long-bodied _Loligo vulgaris_, that has internally
along its back a gristly, translucent stiffener, shaped like a
quill-pen; from which and its ink it derives its names of "calamary"
(from "_calamus_," a "pen"), "pen-and-ink fish," and "sea-clerk." The
_Sepiidae_ are generally known as the Cuttles proper. As a type of them
we may take the common "cuttle-fish," _Sepia officinalis_, the owner of
the hard, calcareous shell often thrown up on the shore, and known as
"cuttle-bone," or "sea-biscuit."
It must here be remarked, that as these head-footed mollusks are not
"fish," any more than lobsters, crabs, oysters, mussels, &c., which
fishmongers call "shell-fish," are "fish," the word "fish" is
misleading, and should be abandoned; and secondly, that the names
"cuttle" and "squid," as distinctive appellations, are unsatisfactory.
The word "cuttle" is derived from "cuddle," to hug, or embrace--in
allusion to the manner in which the animal seizes its prey, and enfolds
it in its arms; and "squid" is derived from "squirt," in reference to
its habit of squirting water or ink. But as all the known members of the
class, except the pearly nautilus, _Nautilus pompilius_, have these
habits in common, the distinguishing terms are hardly apposite. As,
however, they are conventionally accepted and understood, I prefer to
use them. As with other mollusks, so with the cephalopods, some have
shells, and some are naked or have only rudimentary shells. The
Argonaut, or paper nautilus, has been regarded as the analogue of the
snail, which, like it, secretes an _external_ shell for the protection
of its soft body; and the octopus as that of the garden slug, which,
having organs like those of the snail, as the octopus has organs like
those of the shell-bearing argonaut, has no shell. The cuttles and
squids may be compared to some of the sea-slugs, as _Aplysia_ and
_Bullaea_, and to some land-slugs, as _Parmacella_ and _Limax_, which
have an _internal_ shell.
The argonaut and the other families of the cephalopods do not come
within the scope of this treatise; we will therefore confine our
attention to the three above mentioned. Of the anatomy and homology of
the _Octopus_, _Sepia_, and _Calamary_ we need say no more than will
suffice to show in what manner they resemble each other, and wherein
they differ, in order that we may the more clearly perceive to which of
them the story of the Kraken probably owes its origin.
The octopus, the sepia, and the calamary are all constructed on one
fundamental plan. A bag of fleshy muscular skin, called the mantle-sac,
contains the organs of the body, heart, stomach, liver, intestines, a
pair of gills by which oxygen is absorbed from the water for the
purification of the blood, and an excurrent tube by which the water thus
deprived of its life-sustaining gas is expelled. The outrush of water
with more or less force, from this "syphon-tube," is also the principal
source of locomotion when the animal is swimming, as it propels it
backward--not by the striking of the expelled fluid against the
surrounding water, as is generally supposed; but by the unbalanced
pressure of the fluid acting inside the body in the direction in which
the creature goes. Into this syphon-tube, or funnel, opens, by a special
duct, the ink-bag; and from it is squirted at will the intensely black
fluid therein secreted. I doubt very much the correctness of the
statement mentioned by Pontoppidan and others, that the cuttle ejects
its ink with a desire to lie hidden and in ambush for its intended prey,
or with the intention to attract fish within its reach by their
partiality for the musky odour of this secretion. It may be so, but
during the long period that I had these animals under close observation
at the Brighton Aquarium, I never witnessed such an incident. I believe
that the emission of the ink is a symptom of fear, and is only employed
as a means of concealment from a suspected enemy. I have found, that
when first taken, the _Sepia_, of all its kind, is the most sensitively
timid. Its keen, unwinking eye watches for and perceives the slightest
movement of its captor; and if even most cautiously looked at from
above, its ink is belched forth in eddying volumes, rolling over and
over like the smoke which follows the discharge of a great gun from a
ship's port, and mixes with marvellous rapidity with the surrounding
water. But, like all of its class, the _Sepia_ is very intelligent. It
soon learns to discriminate between friend and foe, and ultimately
becomes very tame, and ceases to shoot its ink, unless it be teased and
excited. By means of the communication between the ink-bag and the
locomotor tube, it happens that when the ink is ejected, a stream of
water is forcibly emitted with it, and thus the very effort for escape
serves the double purpose of propelling the creature away from danger,
and discolouring the water in which it moves. Oppian has well described
this--
"The endangered cuttle thus evades his fears,
And native hoards of fluids safely wears.
A pitchy ink peculiar glands supply
Whose shades the sharpest beam of light defy.
Pursued, he bids the sable fountains flow,
And, wrapt in clouds, eludes the impending foe.
The fish retreats unseen, while self-born night
With pious shade befriends her parent's flight."
Professor Owen has remarked that the ejection of the ink of the
cephalopods serves by its colour as a means of defence, as corresponding
secretions in some of the mammalia by their odour.
It is worthy of notice that the pearly nautilus and the allied fossil
forms are without this means of concealment, which their strong external
shells render unnecessary for their protection.
From the sac-like body containing the various organs, protrudes a head,
globose in shape, and containing a brain, and furnished with a pair of
strong, horny mandibles, which bite vertically, like the beak of a
parrot. By these the flesh of prey is torn and partly masticated, and
within them lies the tongue, covered with recurved and retractile teeth,
like that of its distant relatives, the whelk, limpet, &c., by which the
food is conducted to the gullet. Around this head is, as I have said,
the organ which is equivalent to the foot in other molluscs--that by
which the slug and the snail crawl--only that the head is placed in the
centre, instead of in the front of it, and it is divided into segments,
which radiate from this central head. These segments are very flexible,
and capable of movement in every direction, and are thus developed into
arms, prehensile limbs, by which their owner can seize and hold its
living prey. That this may be more perfectly accomplished, these arms
are studded along their inner surface with rows of sucking discs, in
each of which, by means of a retractile piston, a vacuum can be
produced. The consequent pressure of the outer atmosphere or water,
causes them to adhere firmly to any substance to which they are applied,
whether stone, fish, crustacean, or flesh of man.
But, although in all these highly-organised head-footed mollusks the
same general build prevails, it is admirably modified in each of them to
suit certain habits and necessities. Thus the octopus, being a shore
dweller, its soft and pliant, but very tough body, having merely a very
small and rudimentary indication of an internal shell (just a little
"style") is exactly adapted for wedging itself amongst crevices of
rocks. A large, rigid, cellular float, or "sepiostaire," such as _Sepia_
possesses, or a long, horny pen such as _Loligo_ has, would be in the
way, and worse than useless in such places as the octopus inhabits. Its
eight long powerful arms or feet are precisely fitted for clambering
over rocks and stones, and as its food of course consists principally of
the living things most abundant in such localities, namely, the
shore-crabs, its great flexible suckers, devoid of hooks or horny
armature, are exactly adapted to firm and air-tight attachment to the
smooth shells of the crustacea.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--BEAK AND ARMS OF A DECAPOD CUTTLE.
_a_, the eight shorter arms; _t_, the tentacles; _f_, the funnel, or
locomotor tube.]
Unlike the octopus, which is capable only of short flights through the
water, the "cuttles" and "squids," such as _Sepia_ and _Loligo_, are all
free swimmers. For them it is necessary for accuracy of natation that
their soft, and in the squids long bodies, should be supported by such a
framework as they possess. In _Sepia_, the mantle-sac is flattened
horizontally all along its lateral edges so as to form a pair of fins,
which nearly surround the trunk. These fins could never be used, as they
are, to enable the animal to poise itself delicately in the water by
means of their beautiful undulations, which I have often watched with
delight, if their attached edges were not kept in a straight line on
either side. Then, these ten-footed or ten-armed genera have not,
because they need them not, eight long, strong and highly mobile arms
like those of the octopus, nor have they large suckers upon them.
Whereas a great length of reach is an advantage to the octopus, animals
which are purely swimmers, and which hunt and overtake their prey by
speed, would be impeded by having to drag after them a bundle of stout,
lengthy appendages trailing heavily astern. Their eight pedal arms are
short and comparatively weak, though strong enough, in individuals such
as are regarded on our own coasts as fullgrown, to seize and hold a fish
or crustacean as strong as a good sized shore-crab. But, as compensation
for the shortness of the eight arms, they are provided with two others
more than three times the length of the short ones. These are so slender
that they generally lie coiled up in a spiral cone in two pockets, one
on each side, just below the eye, when the animal is quiescent, and are
only seen when it takes its food. These long, slender tentacular arms
are expanded at their extremity, and the inner surface of their enlarged
part is studded with suckers--some of them larger in size than those on
the eight shorter arms. As the food of these swimmers consists, of
course, chiefly of fish, their sucking disks are curiously modified for
the better retention of a slippery captive. A horny ring with a sharply
serrated edge is imbedded in the outer circumference of each of them,
and when a vacuum is formed, the keen, saw-like teeth are pressed into
the skin or scales of the unfortunate prisoner, and deprive it of the
slightest chance of escape.
The manner in which the eight-armed and ten-armed cephalopods capture
their prey is similar in principle and plan, but differs in action in
accordance with their mode of life. The ordinary habit of the octopus is
either to rest suspended to the side of a rock to which it clings with
the suckers of several of its arms, or to remain lurking in some
favourite cranny; its body thrust for protection and concealment well
back in the interior of the recess; its bright eyes keenly on the watch;
three or four of its limbs firmly attached to the walls of its hiding
place--the others gently waving, gliding, and feeling about in the
water, as if to maintain its vigilance, and keep itself always on the
alert, and in readiness to pounce on any unfortunate wayfarer that may
pass near its den. To a shore-crab that comes within its reach the
slightest contact with one of those lithe arms is fatal. Instantaneously
as pull of trigger brings down a bird, or touch of electric wire
explodes a torpedo or a mining fuse, the pistons of the series of
suckers are simultaneously drawn inward, the air is removed from the
pneumatic holders, and a vacuum created in each: the crab tries to
escape, but in a second is completely pinioned: not a movement, not a
struggle is possible; each leg, each claw is grasped all over by
suckers, enfolded in them, stretched out to its fullest extent by them;
the back of the carapace is completely covered by the tenacious disks,
brought together by the adaptable contractions of the limb, and ranged
in close order, shoulder to shoulder, touching each other; and the
pressure of the air is so great that nothing can effect the relaxation
of their retentive power but the destruction of the air-pump that works
them, or the closing of the throttle-valve by which they are connected
with it. Meanwhile the abdominal plates of the captive crab are dragged
towards the mouth; the black tip of the hard horny beak is seen for a
single instant protruding from the circular orifice in the centre of the
radiation of the arms; and, the next, has crushed through the shell, and
is buried deep in the flesh of the victim.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE OCTOPUS (_Octopus vulgaris_).]
Unlike the skulking, hiding octopus, its ten-armed relative, the
_Sepia_ loves the daylight and the freedom of the upper water. Its
predatory acts are not those of a concealed and ambushed brigand lying
in wait behind a rock, or peeping furtively from within the gloomy
shadow of a cave; but it may better be compared to the war-like Comanche
vidette seated gracefully on his horse, and scanning from some elevated
knoll a wide expanse of prairie, in readiness to swoop upon a weak or
unarmed foe. Poised near the surface of the water, like a hawk in the
air, the _Sepia_ moves gently to and fro by graceful undulations of its
lateral fins,--an exquisite play of colour occasionally taking place
over its beautifully barred and mottled back. When thus tranquil, its
eight pedal arms are usually brought close together, and droop in front
of its head, like the trunk of an elephant, shortened; its two longer
tentacular arms being coiled up within their pouches and unseen. Only
when some small fish approaches it does it arouse itself. Then, its eyes
dilate, and its colours become more bright and vivid. It carefully takes
aim, advancing or retreating to such a distance as will just allow the
two hidden tentacles to reach the quarry when they shall be shot out.
Next, the two highest or central feet are lifted up, and the three
others on each side are spread aside, so that they may be all out of the
way of the two concealed tentacles, presently to be launched forth; and
then, in a moment--so instantaneously that the eye of an observer, be he
ever so watchful, can hardly see the act--this pair of tentacles, side
by side, are projected and withdrawn, as if in a flash. The fish or
shrimp has vanished, the suckers of the dilated ends of the tentacles
having adhered to it, and left it, as they re-entered their pouches,
within the fatal "cuddle," or embrace, where it is torn to pieces by the
devouring beak.[7] This action of the tentacles of the decapods is the
most rapid motion that I know of in the whole animal kingdom--not
excepting even that of the tongue of the toad and the lizard. These long
tentacles are not used when the food is within reach of the shorter
arms.
[7] See an excellent article in the _Field_, Sept. 2, 1876, on the
'Ten Footed Cuttle' (_Sepia officinalis_), by the late Mr. W. A.
Lloyd, an earnest and accomplished aquatic zoologist; eccentric,
but in all that relates to the construction and management of an
aquarium a master of his craft. It was his wish that in any future
edition of my little book on the Octopus, or other writings on the
cephalopods, I should use the woodcuts which illustrated his
articles on Sepia and Octopus. By the kind permission of the
proprietors of the _Field_, I reproduce them in suitable size for
these pages.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--THE CUTTLE (_Sepia officinalis_).]
The calamaries or squids of our British Seas seize their prey in the
same manner as _Sepia_, and the description of one will suffice for
both. But there exist two groups of them, which are armed with curved
and sharp-pointed hooks or claws, either in addition to, or instead
of suckers. In the one group (_Onychoteuthis_), the hooks are
restricted to the extremities of the pair of tentacles, in the other
(_Enoploteuthis_), both the tentacles and the shorter arms have hooks.
Professor Owen, in his description of these hook-armed calamaries in the
_Cyclopaedia of Anatomy_, notices also another structure which adds
greatly to their prehensile power (Fig. 4.). "At the extremity of the
long tentacles a cluster of small, simple, unarmed suckers may be
observed at the base of the expanded part. When these latter suckers are
applied to one another the tentacles are securely locked together at
that part, and the united strength of both the elongated peduncles can
be applied to drag towards the mouth any resisting object which has been
grappled by the terminal hooks. There is no mechanical contrivance which
surpasses this structure; art has remotely imitated it in the
fabrication of the obstetrical forceps, in which either blade can be
used separately, or, by the inter-locking of a temporary blade, be made
to act in combination."
The cephalopods obtain and eat their food very much like the rapacious
birds. They are the falcons of the sea. Some of them, like
_Onychoteuthis_, strike their prey with talons and suckers also, others
lay hold of it with suckers alone; but they all tear the flesh with
their beaks, and swallow and digest their food in the same manner as the
hawk or vulture.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--HOOKED TENTACLES OF _Onychoteuthis_.]
The _Sepia_, the owner of the broad, flattened bone, has a decided
predilection for the vicinity of the shore, and for comparatively
shallow water. It there attaches its grape-like eggs to some convenient
stone or growing alga, and delights occasionally to sink to the bottom,
and there to rest half covered by the sand, a habit for which the form
of its body is well adapted. But the calamaries--they of the horny
pen--prefer the wide waters of the open ocean; and although they, too,
especially the smaller species, are common upon the coasts, they are
frequently met with far out at sea, and away from any land. The
elongated and almost arrow-like shape of their bodies enables them to
glide through the water with great rapidity, and the momentum exerted by
a vigorous out-rush from their syphon-tube is sometimes so great that
when the opposite pressure thus produced is so exerted as to cause them
to take an upward direction they leap out of the water to so great a
height as to fall on the decks of ships; and are, therefore, called by
sailors, "flying squids." Their spawn is very different from that of
either octopus, or sepia. It consists of dozens of semi-transparent,
gelatinous, slender, cylindrical sheaths, about four or five inches
long, each containing many ova imbedded in it (making a total number of
about 40,000 embryos), all springing from a common centre and resembling
a mop without a handle. I have never seen any of these "sea-mops"
attached to anything, and the pelagic habits of the calamaries render it
probable that they are left floating on the surface of the sea.
Having made ourselves acquainted with the structure and habits of these
three divisions of the eight-footed and ten-footed mollusks, let us take
evidence as to the size to which they are respectively known to attain,
and the degree in which they may be regarded as dangerous to man.
An octopus from our own coasts having arms two feet in length may be
considered a rather large specimen; and Dr. J. E. Gray, who was always
most kindly ready to place at the disposal of any sincere inquirer the
vast store of knowledge laid up in his wonderful memory, told me that
"there is not one in the British Museum which exceeds this size, or
which would not go into a quart pot--body, arms and all." The largest
British specimen I have hitherto seen had arms 2 ft. 6 in. long. We have
sufficient evidence, however, that it exceeds this in the South of
France, and along the Spanish and Italian coasts of the Mediterranean;
and my deceased friend John Keast Lord tells us in his book, 'The
Naturalist in British Columbia,' that he saw and measured, in
Vancouver's Island, an octopus which had arms five feet long.
I have often been asked whether an octopus of the ordinary size can
really be dangerous to bathers. Decidedly, "Yes," in certain situations.
The holding power of its numerous suckers is enormous. It is almost
impossible forcibly to detach it from its adhesion to a rock or the flat
bottom of a tank; and if a large one happened to fix one or more of its
strong, tough arms on the leg of a swimmer whilst the others held firmly
to a rock, I doubt if the man could disengage himself under water by
mere strength, before being exhausted. Fortunately the octopus can be
made to relax its hold by grasping it tightly round the "throat" (if I
may so call it), and it may be well that this should be known.