Volume 23, Plate XXX / Mammalia (Mammals)

Kraken

The Kraken, long held the largest sea monster in the world and reckoned by some a colossal cuttle-fish, was said to show a back a mile and a half about, resembling a cluster of small islands, with horn-like arms rising as thick as ships’ masts and sinking with a whirlpool that draws all things after it. Reports of vast eight-armed cuttle-fish with arms spanning scores of feet, sighted off Norway and Scotland, lend the tale its substance.