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boat; one of the men severed 'these vdtb 8 hatchet--the creatur-e them moved off
backwards. The amputated firms left in the boat, were brought to St. John's. The
Rev . Hr . Harvey, who was the first to examine and describe these limbs , found that
one f'r-egmerrt measured nineteen feet, although a large portion of it had been destroyed
before it was r e s cued from the fishermen, and
there is no \Jay of detennini
og how muoh more r e maine d attached to the body of the animal.
Many ot her
'Well authenticated Lnatancea could be emimer-ated- bo prove the
immense growth of this family of marine monet.er-s, but those given are sufficient
to e st.ab.ldsb
the fact that these "monar-chs of the ocean" , as Kent calls t hem, do
exist, and
their main characteristic!'> are as Io'l.Lovs e-,
Lst , The body La large and r-ound , and described at' resemb'lfng soaetdmea a cask
Awl again a bale of goods .
Znd , The eyes are large and staring .
Jrd . The arms or tentacles are of great. Iengt.h, and have e snake-ddke appearance
and motion .
On compar-Ing 'these peculiarities with t.he -deect-Iptdone af t.he Sandy-Hook _-
leviathan , as obt.afned through the enterpr-tse
of the "Sun" from eye witnesses, the
dmilaritien, even to the expr-e sadons u sed , will be appar-ent ,
• .~ --' •. ..- . _ - -- ~ - . ----~.. -_.. - ." •• ~ . _ : ~.•_.., ...;.~ .~. :~ ~~~;:"":;';';:;:'- < - .-=-.-",-'
~: .;.;i:!,-t ve stsuppoeedtt.c 1?e the eer-pent.! s _t Ai l ,· cnn Ee r-eed i Ly BCCOU- ' -
nted for by the facts that. in eone cpecde s of the cepbnLopcd the longest tentacle
wi.dena and flat.tens at the end, and mfgbt. easily be nd et.eken for a caudal fin .
l-lhen moving through the water these animals bring their many arms together in 8 '
line , thus affording the least possible resistance , and propel t.hemseIvee by eject;
i ng cater- from
their siphons.
Imagdne one
of these horrible creatures, with itt: f,Ac":-li'ke body he Lf sub-,
mer-ged in t.ho nhoLl.ov va t.er-, Lt .e Ler-ge protruding eyes above the illlver: , evirm-dng