But decades would pass before we were able to see the enormous squid up close.
A monster lies beneath solemn, mausoleum illumination at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Thick tentacles trail beneath the odd, mottled torso that formerly held two giant glaring eyes, and its massive carcass rests in a huge glass coffin.
It looks like a creature from another universe among the exhibits of species that live in the oceans around New Zealand. It reminds me of the anonymous narrator’s first amazed description of a Martian in H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Tentacle bundles beneath a bear-like bulk and a terrifyingly large maw.
