But this last we must imagine a mere pigmy when we consider the enormous dimensions of the one spoken of by Doctor Swediaus,[5] whose tentacula or limbs measured twenty-seven feet in length. But let the doctor speak for himself: “One of the gentlemen,” says he, “who was so kind as to communicate to me his observations on this subject (ambergris), also, ten years ago, caught a sperm whale that had in its mouth a tentaculum of the _Sepia octopodia_ nearly twenty-seven feet long! This did not appear its whole length, for one end was corroded by digestion, so that, in its natural state, it may have been a great deal longer. When we consider the enormous bulk of the tentacula here spoken of, we shall cease to wonder at the common saying of the fishermen, that the cuttle-fish is the largest fish of the ocean.” In Todd’s _Cyclopedia of Anatomy_ (529), treating of _Cephalopoda_, in an admirable paper by Mr. Owen, it states that “the natives of the Polynesian Islands, who dive for shell-fish, have a well-founded dread and abhorrence of these formidable _Cephalopods_, and one can not but feel surprised that their fears should have, perhaps, exaggerated their dimensions and destructive attributes.” The same learned writer, after having beautifully described another animal of this order, observes: “Let the reader picture to himself the projecting margin of the horny hook developed into a long, curved, sharp-pointed claw, and these weapons clustered at the expanded terminations of the arms, and arranged in a double alternate series along the whole internal surface, and he will have some idea of the formidable nature of the carnivorous _onychotenthis_.” This species of _Cephalopoda_ is thus armed with those kind of teeth at the termination of the tentacles in order to secure the agile, slippery, and mucous-clad fishes on which it preys; and there is an instance recorded in the works of a celebrated author on _Excursions in the Mediterranean_, by which we perceive that these terrible creatures sometimes prey upon men. The author says: “In those shallow waters are caught great quantities of fish, by forming curved lines or palisades some way out to sea with palm branches, by which the fish that come up with the high water are retained when it recedes. The _horrid polypus_, which is, however, greedily eaten, abounds, and some are of enormous size. They prove, at times, highly dangerous to bathers.