The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-05-31

Watching a chance, he ieaped within the arms
snd fastened his teeth in one, quite near the body
rigidly about tho dog who struggled yalnly to
free himself, and for once losing his courage, ut
tered piteous houls and cries for help. Mean
time the cutie, whose hugo protruding eyes
| seemed actually to flash fire, and whose body had
turned many coiore, from d dark violet TO bright
Wss wn WITH e er
rooky o g'I1s ground o hopea him to draw the Weight
| along, by giving his arms secure holds.
"Already the monster had reached tho water
side, when could no longer bear the sight, and
rushed to the help of my faithful dog 1 seized
two OF the arms Of the cuttle-fsh, and bracing my
feet firmly against solid rock, pulled with ali my
strength. succeeded in tearing loose these arms
The animal struggled, uttered cries of rago which
finally attacked me- too, throwing two of its arms
about my person; But my bravo dog had not
been idle Gathering courage from my advance,
he had succeeded in quite tearing OF with his
strong teeth two of the arms of the cutie; and
with another struggle ho was free. Then, with n
fury which mover saw cquaIlcd, he attacked She
disabled monster, which we together soon over
powered"
81 determined, says Montfort, in conclusio
mover again to attack an animal of this kind un-
| armed, or to venture to close quarters with it,"
The vast strength and determination of the
cuttle-iish will appear when we know that, though
this individual spread nearly nine feet, his body
was not larger than pumpkin.
THE KnAKEN.
| but we como now to treat of larger variety, AZ
of supposed monstor To present to the incred-
ulous reader the krnkcn, or colossal cutte-fisl,
without first showing him the manners and habits
| of tho commoner variety, would havo been inn
prudent; and am too good lawyer to be thus
imprudent.
| existence of species of Cuttle-ish which attains
/ n monsrous size. have myself seen and handled
what was plainly piece of tho arm of such an
animal. 1t was found floating in tho soa between
| Madagascar and the Islo of France and measured
two feet in diameter. It was mere fragment,
perhaps six feet long; but the suckers upon it
| wero the size of a dessert plate. ..
It often happens that the sperm whale, when
in his death agony, becomes 'taick at the stonl-
ach:", In such cases ho vomits forth masses of
squid, and often individual pieces which are near
| ly as large as tho body Of q full grown man.. II
must be borne in mind that tho throat of the
sperm whale is large enough to take in such
masses without difficulty 1t is the right whale
Before committee of the British House of
Commons, Captain Coffin OF Nantucket, an
| tho mystery of tho formation of ambergris. He
| stated incidentally that he had once killed a
sperm whale in whose mouth he found what at
drawing it out however, when they got the fish
alongside, they found it something still moro
wonderfui-namely, portion of tho arm OF O
cuttle-fsh; 1t measured little over twenty-eight
feet, and the suckers on it were large dinner
plates The end which had been swallowed WAS
already dccaycd, and the outer end, where it ha d
been torn or bitten of, did not appear to have
reached close to the body, as the plates or suck
ers reached to its extremity, and 1t is known that
| in the common cuttle-ish the portion of tho arms
nearest the body are devoid Of these appendages,
| Now, given eight arms, each twenty eight or
| thirty feet long, with body in proportion, and
| you have at once monster before which the sea-
serpent must hide its diminished size in envy.
Our friend, Major DUBos, has handed us the
following translation of letter from a recent
l 4
fall in with one of these marine monsters:
| ii. T. BoUYER, commanding the Atecton, says
| "ON BOARD THE ALEcros,
"The look6SGGtEi 6SGGEhE 1htsagges E. Sf Toner ffe;
the larboard side- 1T is red looks like piece o
mast It is an animal he now cries, 4 can see
The Alecton was approaching the object in full
speed. Iattentively examined the thing 90 ilif.
| ferently described, and recognized the eipan-
tique cutie fish, fpoulpe], the contested resist.
was nearly in the presence of one of those strange
beings which the. ocean sometimes throws forth
from its depths, as if to defy science. Here was a
good opportunity, and determined to study the
| if was possible. I Immediately got every one on
board ready; they loaded the guns, fixed the har.
| poons and ropes for their new sport. Unf rtu-
nately the sea was very rough, the ship was rolling
dreadfully, and the manDuvring difficult, when
| the animal, although remaining always on the
water, was moving at case, and seemed disposed
After several encounters which only enabled
| us to give it about twenty shots, which did NOT
seem to hurt 1t, we succeeded to throw a harpoon
| and lasso. We were preparing to increase the
| number Of ropes, when, in consequence Of pow
| erful movement OF the animal, the harpoon
which had not firmly fastened in his glutinous
envelope, gave way; the part Of the animal VIII ere
the rope had fastened broke, and we succee ded
only in carrying off part of his tail.
But we had seen him near enough to enable us
to give an exact description OF it. 1t is the En-
cornet GiJdnteSQue.
It seemed to measure IS feet from head to tail
in the shape Of Parrots beak, with eight now.
erful arms five or six feet long. It's aspect is
hideous, color dark red, with ugly eyes large as
plate.
Officers and men were all anxious to lower q
boat in order to go and catch the monster, and
was afraid that in the encounter the animal might
capsize the boat with his arms and kill some oi
them with his powerful claws, which, it Is said
| are charged with galyanic electricity. did moi
think proper to expose the lives Of my men in or
der to crafty my curiosity, and, therefore, gave
avoided by diving and passing to the other side
| Of the ship, when we were approaching.
| Now that have seen that strange ANIMAL ant
| seen it too with my own eyes, dare not deny any
longer the many descriptions given by navigators
The has not spoken its last words yet; it keeps
elaborates, in it's ever-working crucible, untolt
monsters for the terror OF the sailors, and tn,
| subjects OF mysterious legends OF the sea.
| Southern Literature.
| A correspondent of the New Orleans Times
who has recently visited Miss EVANS, author O
'Beulah," at her home in Mobile, writes that sh
is engaged upon new novel, the scene OF whicl
L .