which was
supplied in abundance by the surrounding forest.

When the little settlement was sufficiently established, and all the
goods and stores were removed from what now was known as Wreck Island,
they once more launched the boat, and turned their attention to
fishing--not on the Great Bank, about which at the time they were
ignorant, but on the smaller banks nearer shore, where cod-fish were
found in incredible numbers. Some of the party, however, had more of
the hunter's than the fisher's spirit in them, and prepared to make
raids on the homes of the great auk, or to ramble in the forests.

Squill was among the latter. One day, while rambling on the sea-shore
looking for shellfish, he discovered a creature which not only caused
him to fire off all the exclamations of his rich Irish vocabulary, but
induced him to run back to camp with heaving chest and distended eyes--
almost bursting from excitement.

"What is it, boy?" chorused his comrades.

"Och! musha! I've found it at long last!--the great say--sur--no, not
exactly that, but the--the great, sprawlin', long-legged--och! what
shall I say? The great-grandfather of all the--the--words is wantin',
boys. Come an' see for yourselves!"

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

A GIANT DISCOVERED--NEW HOME AT WAGTAIL BAY--A STRANGE ADDITION TO THE
SETTLEMENT.

The creature which had so powerfully affected the feelings of the
Irishman was dead; but dead and harmless though it was, it drew forth
from his comrades a shout of intense surprise when they saw it, for it
was no less than a cuttlefish of proportions so gigantic that they felt
themselves in the presence of one of those terrible monsters of the
deep, about which fabulous tales have been told, and exaggerated
descriptions given since the beginning of historical time.

"Av he's not the say-sarpint himself, boys," panted Squill, as he
pointed to him with looks of unmitigated admiration, "sure he must be
his first cousin."

And Squill was not far wrong, for it was found that the monstrous fish
measured fifty-two feet between the extremities of its outspread arms.
Its body was about eight feet long and four feet broad. Its great arms,
of which it had ten radiating from its body, varied in length and
thickness--the longest being about twenty-four feet, and the shortest
about eight. The under sides of these arms were supplied with
innumerable suckers, while from the body there projected a horny beak,
like the beak of a