Very well! no offence to master," he replied, quietly; "if this is not
Bouguer's cuttlefish, it is, at least, one of its brothers."

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. What irritated this
mollusc? No doubt the presence of the Nautilus, more formidable than
itself, and on which its suckers or its jaws had no hold. Yet, what
monsters these poulps are! what vitality the Creator has given them!
what vigour in their movements! and they possess three hearts! Chance
had brought us in presence of this cuttlefish, and I did not wish to
lose the opportunity of carefully studying this specimen of
cephalopods. I overcame the horror that inspired me, and, taking a
pencil, began to draw it.

"Perhaps this is the same which the Alector saw," said Conseil.

"No," replied the Canadian; "for this is whole, and the other had lost
its tail."

"That is no reason," I replied. "The arms and tails of these animals
are re-formed by renewal; and in seven years the tail of Bouguer's
cuttlefish has no doubt had time to grow."

By this time other poulps appeared at the port light. I counted seven.
They formed a procession after the Nautilus, and I heard their beaks
gnashing against the iron hull. I continued my work. These monsters
kept in the water with such precision that they seemed immovable.
Suddenly the Nautilus stop