Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-01-04
NO. Al.
a Real Devil Fish.

rible narrative Of the fisherman Gil.
/ Eatt's encounter with the octopus OF
sea-devll, who winds his horrible suck
/ ers round his victim, and gradually
! draws away his life's blood, The p0'
4 ct novelist has been accused of exag-
geration IN this incident, but accord
ing to Mr. Lord, an English traveller
who has Just published IN London .
1 book about British Columbia and the
1 Pacific coast, the sea-devils of the
North Pacific even OutdO the terrors
of the Channel Island species. Mr.
Lord says
"The octopus as seen on our coasts
although even here called a 'mansuck-
er' by the fishermen, is a mere Tom
Thumb, tiny dwarf as compared tC
/ the Brobdignagian proportions he at.
! tains In the snug bays and long inland
canals along the east side of VancOu-
yer Island, as we'll as on the mninland
These places afford lurking dens
strongbolds and natural sea nurseries
where the octopus grows to an enOr-
nous size, fattens and wages war with
Unsuitable VOracity on all and every
thing IT can catch. Safe from heavy
breakers, it lives as IN an aquarium O1
smooth, lake-Iike water, that, save In
the ebbing and flowing of the tide
l-gzoWs no change or disturbance.
ordinary resting place Of this
shfdeoa sea beast is under large stone
ozfn the wide cleft Of a rock, where
an octopus can creep aud squeeze IT.
self with the fiatness of a saud-dab or
the slipperiness of an eel. Its mode of
IoeomOtiOn are curious and varied I;
using the eight arms as paddles and
working them alternately, the central
disk representing a boat, Octopi row
themselves along with an ease and cell
erity comparable to the many cared
caique that glides over the tranquil
waters of the BOsphorus they can
ramble at viii over the sandy roadWays
intersecting their submarine parks,
and. converting arms into legs, march
on like a huge spider Gymnasts of
the highest order, they climb the slim
perry lodges, as flies walk up "a window
pane; attaching the countless suckers
that arm the terrible limbs to the face
of the rocks, or to the wrack and sea-
weed. they go about, back downward,
like mariDe sloths, or, clinging with
one arm to the waving algae, perform
a series of trapeZe movements that Leo
tard might view with envy.
II have often, when on the rocks, In
Esquimault harbor, watched my
friend proceedings; the water being
clear and still, it is just like peering
into an aquarium of huge proportions.
crowded with endless varieties of Gu
rious sea monsters !; although grotesqe
and ugly to look at, yet all alike dis
playing the wondrOus works of Crea-
tive wisdom. In all the cosy little
hooks and corners of the harbor the
great sea Wrack (MacrOcystis) grows
wildly, having a straight round stem
that comes up from the bottom often
with stalk three hundred feet long
reaching the surface, it spreads out
two long tapering leaves that float up
upon the water; this sea forest is the
favorite hunting ground of octopi.
I do not think in its native ele-
ment an octopus often catches prey on
the ground or on the rocks, but waits
for them just as a spider does, only
the octopus converts itself into a web
and fearful web too. Fastening one
arm to a stout stalk, stiffening out the
other seven, one would hardly know 1t
rom the Wrack amongst which it is
concealed. Patiently he bides his
time, until presently a shoal Of fish
come gaily on, threading their way
through the sea trees, jOyOusly happy,
little dreaming that this lurking mon
ster. so artfnlly concealed, is close at
hand Two or three of them rub
against the arms; fatal touch! As
though a powerful electric shock had
passed through the fish and suddenly
knocked 1t senseless, so does the arm
of the octopus paralyze It's victim; then
winding great sucker clad cable round
the palsied fish-as an elephant WINDS
its trunk round anything to be con-
veyed to the mouth-draWs the dain-
ty morsel to the center Of the disk,
where the beaked mouth seizes, and
soon sucks it in.
By a sort of poetical justice these
tyrants of the sea caverns are them
selves hunted by an enemy of untir-
ing pertinacity. The Indian regards
the octopus as a great deicacy, especi-
ally when its huge glutinOus body is
carefully roasted Were the octopus
once to get its long throng-like feelers
over the side of the canoe, and at the
same time retain a hold upon the
seaWrack, it could as easily haul il O.
yer as a child could a basket. This
the crafty Indian well knows How
he captures him Mr. Lord thus de-
Padding the canoe close to the
rocks, and quietly pushing aside the
Wrack, the savage peers through the
crystal water, until his praetised eye
detects an octopus, with its great rope
like arms stiffened out. waiting patti
emily for food. His spear is twelve
feet long, armed at the end with four
pieces of hard wood, made harder by
being baked and charred In the fire;
these project about fourteen inches
beyond the spear -haft, each piece hav-
ing q barb on one side, and are arrang-
ed In a circle round the spear end,
and lashed firmly on with cedar bark.
Having spied out the octopus, the
hunter passes the spear carefully
through the water until within an inch
OF so of the centre disk and then sends
it In as deep as be can plunge it.
Writhing with pain and passion, the
octopus coils its terrible arms round
the haft; redskin making the side of
the canoe a fulcrum for his spear,
keeps the struggling monster well of,
! and raises it to the surface of the wa
/ ter. lie is dangerous now; If he could
1 get a hOldfast on either savage or ca
noe, nothing short Of ehopping of the
arms piecemeal would be Of any avail.
But the willy redskin knows all
! this, and has taken care to have ready
another spear unbarbed, long, straight
smooth and very sharp, and with this
! he stabs the octopus where the arms
Join the central disk. I suppose the
spear must break down the nervous
ganglions supplying motive power, as
4 the stabbed arms lose at once strength
and tenacity; the suckers that mo-
ment before held on with force ton
men could not have overcome, relax,
and the entire ray hangs like a dead
snake, limp, lifeless mass. Aud
/ thus the Indian stabs and stabs, until
the octopus, deprived of all power to
do harm, is dragged into the canoe, a
great, inert, quivering lump Of brown
looking jelly"
AN INSECT LANDsCAPE.-At the
! Partisan Pdiais a Iadustrie is a land.
scape, executed not in oils, pastels. ol
water-colors, but In European and
foreign insects. The foreground /.