Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-07-12
AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE DEVIL-FIsH

In Victor Hugo's last romance, there is a
graphic description of a combat between
the hero of the novel and the devilfsh.-
The hero is crab-hunting among the Chan
| mel Islands
"Above the water level, and within
reach of his hand, he observed the horizon
tai fissure in the granite. Probably the
| crab was there He thrust in his fist as
far as possible, and began to grope in the
dark hole. Suddenly he felt himself seized
by the arm. The sensation was one Of in
describable horror Something thin, tough,
fiat, ice-cold, glutinous, and living, had
twined itself around his arm in the dark.
1t was mounting to his breast, pressing
like ligature and boring like gimlet. In
less than a second, the strange coil had
mastered his wrist and elbow, and touched
his shoulder the end was burrowing un-
der his arm-pit
"Gilliatt threw himself backward, but
could hardly move ; he seemed to be nailed
fast. He took the knife from between his
teeth, in his left hand, and with the lever
age Of his arm against the rock, made a
desperate effort to release the other arm
He only moved the ligature little, md it
grew tighter. 1t was pliable as leather,
firm as steel, cold as night
a. A second tongle-like thong, narrow
and pointed, emerged from the crevice of
the rock 1t licEed his naked chest, and
suddenly stretching out indefinitely, stuck
to his skin and entirely surrounded his
whole body. At the same time, all his
muscles were contracted with pain like
nothing else in the world, as if innumera-
bic lips, glued to his flesh, were trying to
drink his blood
A third feeler fixes on his ribs fourth
on his stomach a fifth embraces his neck.
Then the assailant's body appears.
u" Suddenly came up from the bottom of
the hole broad, round, fiat, viscid mass,
the hub of which the five feelers were the
spokes on the other side of it might be
seen the beginning Of three more feelers,
concealed by the rock In the midst Of
this glutinous mass, We're two yes looking
at Gilliatt, and he knew it was the devil
fish"
After which, the reader is kept in sus-
pcnse whole chapter by a description of
this live cupping-glass," which drinks
mems blood with its four hundred suckers.
" Such was the being in whose power
Gilliatt found himself. He had put his arm
into its hole, the devilfsh had caught him.
and was holding him as a spider holds
fly. He stood in water up to his waist, his
feet clinging to the round slippery peb-
bes, his right arm tightly imprisoned in
the coils Of the devil-fsh and his body al
most hidden by the crossfolds of this hor-
rid envelope. With five arms it stuck to
him, with three to the rock.
" You cannot pull yourself loose from the
devil-fsh. Gilliatt had but one resource,
his knife ! There is no cutting the feelers;
their material cannot be separated by steel;
besides, it sticks so close that d cash in
the feeler would pierce your own skin. 1t
is only vulnerable in the head
"Gilliatt he'd his knife firmly. The pres
sure Of the two hundred and fifty suckers
increased He and the monster looked at
each other. Suddenly the creature loosen
cd his sixth feeler from the rock, and dart
ing at Gilliatt, tried to seize his left arm.
At the same time it advanced its head.
" Bat GiIliatt avoided the feeler, and Just
as the devil-tsh was on the point of biting
his breast, his armed hand came down up
on Ii, There was q convulsiye struggle
like the meeting of two thunder Clouds
Gilliatt plunged the point of his knife into
the flat, tough mass, and making a circle
around the two eyes with a whiring move
ment, lke the curl OF a whip, wrenched off
the head as q dentist wrenches out q tooth.
The combat was over The four hun.
dred suckers let go their hold of man and
rock together, and the whole creature col
apscd and fell like a bundle Of old linen"