Page:The American Naturalist Volume 31.djvu/356



On the 5th of December, 1896, a portion of a very large marine animal was cast ashore on the beach twelve miles south of St. Augustine, Florida. When it first came ashore it was much mutilated at one end, and had evidently been dead some time, and was, apparently, in an advanced state of decomposition. Contrary to expectation, it has resisted further decay, and still remains, after more than three months, nearly in the same state as at first. It was first brought to my notice by Dr. De Witt Webb, who has devoted a great amount of time and labor to its investigation and preservation. Through him I have received a dozen different photographic views of it, taken at different times, and showing it both in its original state and when it had been moved and partly turned over. Quite recently he has sent me several large masses of the thick and firm integument, of which the mass is mainly composed. By his efforts it has recently (with much labor) been moved several miles nearer to St. Augustine, to the terminus of a railroad, and protected from the drifting sand. It is likely to keep some months longer without much change, and to be visited by large numbers of people. The figures now given are copied from photographs made two days after it came ashore. At that time the sand had collected around it to the depth of about eighteen inches.

Its length is 21 feet; breadth about 7 feet; height about 4½ feet, when the sand was removed. It weight was estimated at about 7 tons.

As shown by the figures, it has an elongated, pear-shaped form, broadly rounded at the larger, closed end, and considerably flattened toward the smaller and much mutilated end. At this end, as shown in both views, there are large, divergent ridges covered by the frayed-out fibrous tissues. These ridges are folds of the integument, but were at first mistaken for the stumps of arms, like those of an Octopus, and were so described