"
I looked at Conseil. Ned Land hurried to the window.
"What a horrible beast!" he cried.
I looked in my turn, and could not repress a gesture of disgust.
Before my eyes was a horrible monster worthy to figure in the legends
of the marvellous. It was an immense cuttlefish, being eight yards long.
It swam crossways in the direction of the Nautilus with great speed,
watching us with its enormous staring green eyes. Its eight arms,
or rather feet, fixed to its head, that have given the name
of cephalopod to these animals, were twice as long as its body,
and were twisted like the furies' hair. One could see the 250 air
holes on the inner side of the tentacles. The monster's mouth,
a horned beak like a parrot's, opened and shut vertically.
Its tongue, a horned substance, furnished with several rows
of pointed teeth, came out quivering from this veritable pair
of shears. What a freak of nature, a bird's beak on a mollusc!
Its spindle-like body formed a fleshy mass that might weigh 4,000
to 5,000 lb.; the, varying colour changing with great rapidity,
according to the irritation of the animal, passed successively
from livid grey to reddish brown.
Pages:
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485