Tuesday 16 August 1836

A very curious fish of the class Cephalopoda flewor rather jumped on board today: it is nearly five inches long has two tentaclae about two inches long with which it adheres firmly to any substance offered it, and eight mandibles (for want of a better word) about 1 ½ inches long with which it seizes and tears its prey. The body is inserted in a sack of a horny nature, from the bottom of which issue two gelatinous substances about an inch wide and 1 ½ inches long by means of which it moves in the water. When I first took hold of it it emitted from the neck a large quantity of inky fluid the object of which is supposed to be to surround itself with a cloud in case of danger, thus resembling in this respect the cuttle fish. The colour has completely changed since put in spirits; the sack, and the substances with which it moves being perfectly transparent in life, and the whole of a greyish instead of the red tint which it has now assumed.