Our fishermen frequently see some that are
more than four feet long. Some skeletons of poulps are preserved in
the museums of Trieste and Montpelier, that measure two yards in length.
Besides, according to the calculations of some naturalists, one of these
animals only six feet long would have tentacles twenty-seven feet long.
That would suffice to make a formidable monster."
"Do they fish for them in these days?" asked Ned.
"If they do not fish for them, sailors see them at least.
One of my friends, Captain Paul Bos of Havre, has often affirmed
that he met one of these monsters of colossal dimensions in
the Indian seas. But the most astonishing fact, and which does
not permit of the denial of the existence of these gigantic animals,
happened some years ago, in 1861."
"What is the fact?" asked Ned Land.
"This is it. In 1861, to the north-east of Teneriffe, very nearly
in the same latitude we are in now, the crew of the despatch-boat
Alector perceived a monstrous cuttlefish swimming in the waters.
Captain Bouguer went near to the animal, and attacked it with
harpoon and guns, without much success, for balls and harpoons
glided over the soft flesh.
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