DeWitt Webb to William Healy Dall, March 17, 1897

As you already know, Prof. Verrill now says our strange creature cannot be a cephalopod and that he cannot say to what animal it belongs. I do not see how it can be any part of a cetacean as Prof. V. says you suggest. It is simply a great big bag and I do not see how it could be any part of a whale. Now that I have had it brought 6 miles up the beach it is out of the way of the tide and the drifting sand and will have a chance to cure or dry up somewhat. If it were not for the soft mass of the viscera which was so difficult to remove that we left it there would be but little odour. As it is there is no great amount.