Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-03-05
THE DEFTIrFISH.

VICTOR HUGO, in his 'sToilcrs of the
Sea-" gave an elaborate and painfully in
teresting description of marine monster
which he most appropriately called The
Devii-Fish. This name is applied to two
varieties of fish, one of which is found on
the Atlantic coast An incident occurred
in the harbOr of Charleston, S. c., some
years ago, which first brought this fish
prominently before the American public
A negro who had anchored his boat in
what he thought a favorable place, and
who was fishing quietly, suddenly felt the
bow of his boat pulled down, and, in
stinctively rushing to the stern to keep
her balanced, reared for help. The Great
ure that had hold of his anchor began to
pull him out to sea. He roared the
louder, and tried TO turn the boat, answer
ing to those approaching him, who asked
where he was going, Il dunno, for de
debbil has held pf mer'
Either his noise, OF the pressure he
brought to bear, caused the fish to turn, SO
that it soon ran on the shadows.
Those in the resCuing boats then at
tackled it WIN boat-hooks, pitchforks, and
whatever other weapons came to hand,
until finally il was killed. 1t proved to
be q female specimen of the CephaLOpterG
,s0G12pl3liS, or Ocean-vampire, also called
the sea-deviI It nearly covered the floor
of the small room in which it was exhib-
tied, measuring nine feet across, and haV-
ing the form Of triangle, with one long
curved side In the middle OF this long
curve was the mouth, and on each side OF
the mouth an arm as long as mans ana
about four times as thick. These were
evidently intended to convey food to its
mouth, and it must have been with these
that it caught and held the Negroes
anchor.
Some wears ago a School" of them APP
peared off Cape May. The neighbOring
fishermen became quite excited, and went
after them in a schooner. They harpOon-
ed and captured some twenty of them.
The largest one they caught-which, how
ever, they declared was not the largest
one they saw-measured fifteen feet in
width by twelve feet in length, and weigh
ed two thousand and forty-four pounds
when disembOweled.
Mr.. t. r. Peale, of Philadelphia, saw
and bought this specimen for two hun
dred dollars
No doorway could be found large
enough to let it in except that of indie
pendence Hall, and this huge offering of
American seas lay there in patriotic state,
surrounded by wondering groups.
Chemistry, however, soon began to
make its transformations patent to sur
rounding noses.
Mr. Peale, therefore, made a careful
drawing of the fish, and then frame re-
sembling it as much as possible, on which
to stretch the skin. 1t took him all of
one night to skin it, and three carts were
II
the flesh.
The devil-fish of Victor Hugo belongs
to a different class. 1t is a CephGL0p0da,
or head-footed, because the feet, or rather
arms, spring directly from the head.
Most of them have horny beak like
nat of parrot, except that the under
pan is longer instead of the upper. One
Of these has been preserved, which is four
and half inches in length The muscles
in which the jaws are embedded, and by
which they are worked, are extremely
powerful.
Mr. BeaIe, an Englishman, who had
gone ashore on one of the BONN Islands
10 look for shells, noticed suddenly at his
feet an extraordinary looking animal
crawling toward the surf, which it had
evidently only just left. 1t was creeping
on its eight legs, which, from their soft
and flexible nature, bent considerably
under the weight of its body, so that it
was lifted by its efforts but little above
The rocks. 1t appeared much alarmed at
seeing him, and made every effort to es-
cape. Mr. Beale endeavored to stop it by
pressing on one of its legs with his foot;
but, although he used considerable force
for that purpose, its strength was so great
that it several times liberated its limb in
spite of all the efforts he could employ on
the wet and slippery rocks. He then laid
hold, with his hand, of one of the tenta-
+, cleS in which its limbs terminated, and
held it firmly, so that it appeared as if the
limb would be torn ssurder by the united
efforts of himself and the creature. He
then gave it powerful jerk,
wishing to disengage it from the rocks
to which it chung so forcibly by
its suckers. This effort it effectually
resisted; but the moment after, the APP
parently enraged animal lifted its head,
with its large projecting eyes, and, loos-
ening its hold upon the rock, suddenly
sprang upon MIR. Beale's arm, and chung
to it by means of its suckers with great
power, endeavoring to get It's beak, which
could now be seen between the roots OF
its arms, in q position to bite. A sensa-
ton of horror pervaded Mr.. Beale's
whole frame when he found that this
hideous animal had fixed itself so firmly
on his arm. Its cold, Shiny grasp was
extremely sickenlng; and he called loud
ly to the captain. who was at some dis
lance, to come and release him from his
disgusting assailant.
The captain quickly came, and, taking
him down to the boat, during which time
Mr.. Beale was employed in keeping the
sbeak of the octopus away from his hand
soon released him by destroying his tor
mentor with the boat-knife, which he &C
.complished by cutting away portions at
sSime
Let US now see how large these formld
able creatures sometimes grow. a re
cent writer October 25, 1879 says ina
the Italian fishermen of San Francisco
who FREQUENT the Farallone Islands, ano
90 down the coast, not upfrequently take
these devil-fish from eight to ten fee
across; and, some months ago, he saw
one hanging at door that measured a
least nine feet from tip to tip of the ten
tacles. In 1865, Captain Hygrom brough
to Copenhagen, from the Bahama Islands
one of these fish eighteen feet long
Pliny speaks of one that infested the
coast of Spain, devouring the fish and de
.stroying the fisheries 1t weighed sever
hundred pounds, and its arms were more
than thirty feet long. Swedianer reports
that some whalers took out OF the mouth
of whale pieces of cuttle-fsh that wer'
twenty-five feet long.
mate of whaling vessel states tina
+bere were enormous squids in the equa
torial seas that furnished food to thu
enerm-whales, and that he had on one oc