in letters received by me. Moreover, Mr. Wilson who visited it, when first found, claimed to have found a portion of an attached arm, 36 feet long, buried in the sand. This last statement, in the light of later investigations, must have been erroneous and was entirely misleading.[1] At that time, however, it seemed quite consistent with the form and appearance of the mass, which was described by Dr. Webb as closely similar to the body of the common small octopus. The photographs show this resemblance very clearly; and the ridges at the mutilated end, then supposed to be the stumps of mutilated arms, seemed to confirm the view that the mass was the mutilated body of a huge octopus,[2] and as such it was described by me in the American Journal of Science and elsewhere.
As soon as specimens of the tissues were sent to me, even a hasty examination was sufficient to show that this view was not correct, for instead of being composed of hardened muscular fibers,[3] as had been supposed, the thick masses of tissue were found to consist almost wholly of a hard, elastic complex of connective tissue fibers of large size. The masses sent vary from four to ten inches in thickness. They are white, and so tough that it is hard to cut them, even with a razor, and yet they are somewhat flexible and elastic. The fibers are much interlaced in all directions, and are of all sizes up to the size of coarse twine and small cords. The larger fibers unite to form bundles extending from the inner surface radially. According to Dr. Webb, who opened the mass, these cords were attached
- ↑ The memoradum written by Mr. Wilson and forwarded to me by Dr. Webb is as follows: "One arm lying west of body, 23 feet long; one stump of arm about 4 feet long; three arms lying south of body and from appearance attached to same (although I did not dig quite to body, as it laid well down in the sand and I was very tired), longest one measured over 23 feet, the other arms were three to five feet shorter."
- ↑ This was also the opinion of a large number of naturalists who saw the photographs sent to me.
- ↑ A highly contractile muscular integument is an essential feature of all cephalopods.Statements that the creature cannot be an Octopus, but is of cetacean nature, were published by me in several local daily papers within a day or two after the specimens were first examined by me, and shortly afterwards in the New York Herald and in Science.
