INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.


A great sea monster has been washed ashore on the coast of Florida, and
men who study natural history are much interested in it. What is left of
the creature is said to weigh eight tons, and no one can tell exactly what
kind of a fish it is, because it appears to have been tossed by the waves
for a long time, and has been partly destroyed by them.

Those people who have seen it think that it is a kind of cuttlefish, but
that the arms, or tentacles, as they are called, have been broken away
from it. These arms must have been from one to two hundred feet long. It
is now only a huge body without much shape to it. Photographs and careful
descriptions of it have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington and to Yale College, and the scientific men there expect to be
able to decide what it is by comparing it with other known kinds of
mollusks. Scientists study these things so carefully, that they can tell
what the exact size of an animal was, and what it looked like, if but a
small portion is left; we may therefore expect to hear all about this
great creature ere long.

The size of this wonderful creature can be better realized, when we learn
that it took four strong horses, a dozen men, and three sets of tackle to
move it.

At first it seemed impossible to believe that such a terrific monster
really existed. Sailors have told so many yarns for the sake of making a
good story, that people are a little afraid to believe the wonderful tales
of the sea, but THE GREAT ROUND WORLD took pains to find out