Terrible Cephalopoda.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 204, 1 September 1904, Page 4

Terrible Cephalopoda.

The Prince of Monaco, who is devoted to oceanography, and has had much practical experience as & whaler, delivered a leoture at the Royal Institute which is full of points of interest to the unlearned. The Prince thinks he can prove that the vast spaces of ocean between the surface and the extreme depths are haunted by the great and terrible cephalopoda on which certain species of ;whales depend for food, and witth which they wage perpetual, and not always quite successful, war. These creatures cannot, owing to their organisation, rise into space illuminated by light, and their very existence has often been denied. That suggests, although tlie Prince did not mention it, that if the hunters succeed, as they are successful, in driving these whales from accessible waters, the numbers of these horrible creatures on which they live, and probably their size also, must increase. He #ad, himself, in the course of his experiments discovered many new species of cephalopoda, "some of gigantic size." The whole lecture is most interesting ; but' what a curious fact it is that the proprietors of a gaming table on the Mediterranean should unintentionally contribute so largely to the progress of ichtyological science.—Spectator.