The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-05-31
VICTOR HUeo's DEv1L-F1su.

Ting account Of singular and hideous monster,
Inc 'pleuvro." 1t is commonly supposed that this
animal ls creature of HuGo's brain, but he has
IN fact told very little moro than the exact truth
about it. Tho cuttle-fsh is n creature very well
known to naturalists and to seamen, but less fa-
miiiar to tho general public. Hero is Huuo's po-
etical description of tho 'devil-fsh":
II terror were the object of its creation, no.
thing could be imagined moro perfect than the
devil-iish.
Tho whale has enormous bulk, tho devil-fsh
is comparatively small the jararaca makes
hlsslnB noise, tho devil-isl s mute; the rhinoce-
1os has horn, the devil-tish has none; tho scor-
Pion has dart, tho deyil-ish has no dart; the
the yosper, r,ilio-vampyre has wings with claws, tho
devll-ish has ings; the porcupine has his
spines, the devil-iish has no spiues; the sword
hsh has his sword, tho devil-ish has none; the
torpedo has it's electric sparks, the deyi-fsh has
none; the toad has its poison, the devil-t has
none; the wiper has it's venom, the devil-iish has
no venom; the lion has it's tatons, tho devl-fsh
mas no talona the griffon has its beak the devil
nsh has no beak; tho crocodile has it's jaws, the
,, deyii-ish has no teeth. r.
Tho devil-fsh has no muscular organization, no
menaclng cry, no breastplate, no horn, no dart,
no claw, no tail with which to hold or bruisc, no
cutting; fins Or wings with nails, no prickles, no
sword, no electric discharge, no poison no talons,
no beak, no teeth, yet he is, Of all creatures, the
most forpidably armed.
VAMPIRE.
Awriter in Ha,per's Magazine for July, 1860,
describes the monster in plain prose, and some
extracts from his article, which we make below,
will perhaps interest tho readers of HUaos
novel: -'. '"- '.'..'
'' z" ii+sf-' THE OUTTLE FISH.
The colossal cuttlo fish belongs to the class
f0Msoa, and the order Cephat0poda-so called
because it's organs Of movement grouped
apout the head Its common name is "cuttle
hsh, - and tho sail'rs, who know most about it,
call 1T tse ''squid," and have proverb that ''the
squld is tho largest aud the smallest animal which
HVes IN the sea-, which Ii as nearly correct as pro-
verbs generally There are in fact cutie fish
but an inch long, which have regularly developed
arms, and secrete the sumo inky fluid with which
the larger squid, whose arms have been found
a, SWenty eight feet long, darkens the water when
he Is rushing OH his prey, or when he, in
turn, is chased by some hungry whale or
shark, whose jaws he escapes under cover of his
1nky cloud. These minute equids found i'll
shoals, near the surface of the water, in various
parts or the ocean, and are ravenously pursued
i by dolphlns, bonita, aluicore and oven by por-
poses, whose choice food they are. There is
variety, which measures some two inches in
length, which has the faculty of dartng out of
the water when pursued, and is therefore called
by seamen the flying squid. 1t is found in vast
numbers on the banks of Newfoundland, where
our cod fishermen use a peculiarly constructed
hook to catch it; They uso the animal for bait in
catching. goldfish, who seem to be eXtrayagantly
fond Of it, and will bite at squid bait when
even tho most delicate clam does not tempt
them 90
The ancients knew the cuttle-fsh very WE'LL
They are even now found in considerable numbers
In the Mediterranean, but not in such quantities
as must have grown in the days when the Romans
and Greeks, with singular taste, thought q "cut-
tie" the hnest of hst, and paid high prices for
the oIssn India it is eaten now; and have seen
Port Louis usla" mot bought in the bazaar Of
must nave made, them proud, il they Matf Chat hui
man Kind OF pride which values itself on high
market price. ~ If@TT.-T- " A'e -
~ ia THE fNR-BAa.
!. Tie inky fluid, which is secreted in littls bag
In the upper part Of the animals body, and which
Plfhy took to be it's blood, has sweet and pleas
ant taste, and was formerly used in cooking the
body, to give it a peculiar flavor. 1t flows more
freely from the body when the animal has been
dead day than while it is still alive; of which the
Chinese avail themselves, who, according to some
Dutch travellers who describe the manufacture of
India ink, gather the cuttle-fsh, and throw them
together in vats where the ink flows out and is
drained off into proper vessels below. Denys
Montfort, who is the most volumnous writer on
the cuttle-hsh, asserts that the fresh fluid makes
an ineradicabie stain in linen. Though in the
common uttle-6sh the ink bag is only the size OF
a mans thumb, the animal can squrtthe juice out
to distance OF six feet, and with considerable
force; and the small contents Of the bag suffice
such is the diffusve and penetrating power of the
huld-to color several buckets of water.
THE TERRIBLE MOUTH AND ARMS.
The body of the cutte-fish has no opening be-
low. ALI the Issues or vents are grouped near the
mouth. This mouth is a weapon of 30 terrible
force that mere glance at it, and at the huge
sulen eyes Of the beast, at once convince the OBJ
server that it is a fierce and ravenous animal. Il
is not a mouth, properly, but BILL parrot-shap.
ed, with strong, sharp horny edges the lower
mandible fitting intp the upper. The muscles are
very strongly developed and show that it's hold
is deadly, as indeed is proven by those who have
observed it seizing and tearing TO pieces ts S:ey
The eyes are quite round, very prominent. set
ut the sides OF tho head, and have a malignant.
greedy, cruel expression, which s indescribable
but which those who have noticed the cold blood
ed stare of the dog fish of our coast can imagine
It is that intensified and with gleam OF ferocious
intelligence added.
It remains to describe the arms Of the cuttle-
fsh--three monstrous weapons each furnished
with q series OF exhausters, with which it clinps
with fatal tenaclty to it's prey which it has first
seized and enveloped in it's anaconda-liRe hug
The larger rock squid cuttle-f-h has eight
ing to the size of the animal; but examples are
common on the coast OF A1adagasca and Eastern
Africa whose arms measure from three to FIVE
feet in length, who spread circle, therefore,
whose diameter is from seven to twelve feet.
Each arm has a row OF flat projections COM
marvellously contrived air-exhausters, whose me-
chanism is too complicated to be made compre-
.hensiblo without diagrams. 1t will suffice to ex-
plain that they Work in q manner similar to that
simple piece Of leather with string attached of
school boys called q SUCKER" with which lin nv
school days} We used to lift bricks and other fat
heavy objects.
The body, which is very small in proportion to
the spread OF arms, is simply a leathery bag, con-
tanning the intestines and organs OF life. The
breathing apparatus is, according to Montfort
(who dissected gr' at many, 30 constructed that
the land, and may be called sem-amphibious. Its
arms. which are also it's organs OF progression,
but poorly sustain lts weight and it is not proba
bic that 1t ever, except by accident, comes ON
shore though it has its favOrite home among the
rocks the coast, to one OF which it cIings with
tuhfn at