Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
According to
The Vinland Sagas
, “Wonderstrands” along the Labrador coast is the place where the first Europeans
came ashore.
GIANT SQUID
ON OCTOBER
26, 1873, two fishermen—Daniel Squires and Theophilus Piccot— along with Piccot's son—saw
something floating in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. Thinking it was flotsam, they rowed alongside and struck
it with a boat hook. To their horror, the mass convulsed into life. Its fearsome eyes flashing, the giant squid
rose up from the water and lunged at the 6-meter (20-foot) skiff, fastening its horny “parrot's beak” to the gun-
nels. Then a stringy, pallid tentacle with a thick, sucker-studded club shot out from the creature's head and
coiled like a snake about the stern of the boat. A stouter arm also seized the boat, and the squid began to sub-
