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[Le Blog Personnel de Professeur Aronnax] April 16th 1868

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:46:51 -0700 (PDT)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

As you know, my intention was to provide a daily record of my
adventures in the Nautlius and put it in the context of the history of
the area (for instance, if we happened to catch sight of an island or
country, I would provide some information on that country and tell you
what we did). Over the past three weeks or so, that has been simply
impossible and why, you may ask? Simple, the speed of this vessel.

Since we broke free of the Antartic, this vessel has been going like
the clappers, as my English friends would say. On April 1st, we sighted
the Tierra Del Fuego of South America and so I was going to make some
comments on the area (which translates as Land of Fire due to the
volcanoes there), if we had not suddenly turned right and within 24
hours sighted the Falkland Islands. So I had to scrap that note and
start work on the Falkland Islands. No sooner had I finished that, than
Patagonia was sighted. So out went the Falkland Islands and I started
work on Patagonia. Just as I was about to make my observations of the
Patagonian nation (and the connection to Wales), Cape San Roque was
sighted (prompting yet another set of research) and just as that was
finished, yes, you've guessed it, we sighted the mouth of the Amazon
river. Or to put it another way, over the course of 10 days we had
travelled 5,000 miles (8,047 km or 4,344 nautical miles) at an average
speed of 18 knots. That made me convinced that it wasn't much point
doing anything unless we stopped for more than an hour.

Thankfully that is now the case. We sighted the islands of Martinique
and Guadaloupe this morning and I was just about to start work on my
observations of these islands when Ned and Conseil came in. It was Ned
who first spoke and asked my opinion about some nearby caverns. I
looked out of the porthole and observed that they were home to poulps,
which are a type of squid. Conseil asked if I meant cuttlefish and I
replied that I did not as poulps are quite able to grow to quite large
sizes. Ned was less than convinced, until Conseil piped up that he had
seen an octopus dragging a large ship underwater. After a little
questioning, it became clear that the image Conseil had seen was in
fact in a stained glass window at the church in St. Malo. I recognised
the image instantly and related how it had come about.

"I have heard of this picture; but the subject represented is taken
from a legend, and you know what to think of legends in the matter of
natural history. Besides, when it is a question of monsters, the
imagination is apt to run wild. Not only is it supposed that these
poulps can draw down vessels, but a certain Olaus Magnus speaks of an
octopus a mile long that is more like an island than an animal. It is
also said that the Bishop of Nidros was building an altar on an immense
rock. Mass finished, the rock began to walk, and returned to the sea.
The rock was a poulp. Another Bishop, Pontoppidan, speaks also of a
poulp on which a regiment of cavalry could manoeuvre. Lastly, the
ancient naturalists speak of monsters whose mouths were like gulfs, and
which were too large to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar. One
cannot deny that poulps and cuttlefish exist of a large species,
inferior, however, to the cetaceans. Aristotle has stated the
dimensions of a cuttlefish as five cubits, or nine feet two inches. Our
fishermen frequently see some that are more than four feet long. Some
skeletons of poulps are preserved in the museums of Trieste and
Montpelier, that measure two yards in length. Besides, according to the
calculations of some naturalists, one of these animals only six feet
long would have tentacles twenty-seven feet long. That would suffice to
make a formidable monster!"

Whilst I was going on, I had failed to notice that Conseil was standing
at the porthole with his back to me, if I had, perhaps I should have
known that the following was too good to be true. "Would I be correct
in assuming that it measured six yards long, with a head crowned with
eight tentacles, had eyes placed at the back of it's head and have a
beak like a parrot?". I suddenly realised what Conseil was talking
about and whipped him around to face me and gave him a massive
hug. "And all those times you pretended to fall asleep as I was
espousing my theories on creatures!" I said. However, it was Ned who
knew what had happened as he pointed to the porthole and said "What a
horrible beast!"

You see, what I thought was Conseil remembering everything I have ever
told him about life underwater, was in fact him giving a description of
the poulp that was looking in on us through the porthole and I have to
admit, it looked ever worse than I had been led to believe. 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 realising that
this sort of event wasn't going to happen every day!

So here we are, floating in the Carribean Sea with a collection of
squids / cuttlefishes (call them what you will). Who says that life
underwater isn't interesting eh?

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to Le Blog Personnel de Professeur Aronnax on
8/19/2010 12:46:00 PM

Received on Thu 19 Aug 2010 - 16:42:59 IDT

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