DeWitt Webb to William Healy Dall, January 17, 1897

by DeWitt Webb

Yesterday I took four horses, six men, 3 sets tackle, a lot of heavy planking, and a rigger to superintend the work and succeeded in rolling the Invertebrate out of the pit and placing it about 40 feet higher upon the beach, where it now rests on the flooring of heavy plank . . . on being straightened out to measure 21 feet instead of 18 . . . A good part of the mantle or head remains attached near to the more slender part of the body . . . The body was then opened for the entire length of 21 feet . . . The slender part of the body was entirely empty of internal organs. And the organs of the remainder were not large and did not look as if the animal had been so long dead . . . The muscular coat which seems to be all there is of the invertebrate is from two and three to six inches in thickness. The fibers of the external coat are longitudinal and the inner transverse...no caudal fin or any appearance if there had been any . . . no beak or head or eyes remaining . . . no pen to be found nor any evidence of any bony structure whatever.