The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-01-09
THE DEVIL FISH.


A piece of rare good fortune has
fallen in my way in connection with
this extraordinary fish. In my last
letter gave your readers an account
of an interview which two of our
fishermen had with a monstrous
specimen of the race, in Conception
Bay, and of the ampntation of two
of its arms. Yesterday a fisherman
from Logic Bay called on me and in
formed me that he had caught Dew
il-fish in net. On examination ]
found that his statement was cor
rect, and that though the dimen-
sions of this specimen are small com
pared With the monster of Concep-
ton Bay, is by no means ''to be
sneezed at : aud is much larger than
Victor Hugo's celebrated Devil-tish.
/ am now the possessor Of a com
pIete specimen Of this remarkable
cuttle-fsh; and judging from afti.
cles which have recently appeared
on this subject, in the Scientific
American. there is no othor speci-
men on this side ofthe Atlantic. 1t
took four stout flshermen to kill it;
and they were at length compelled
to cut off its head, in order to accom-
plish their object. Had it not been
entangled in a herring net, SO that
! its hinge arms were not available as
| it could get no hold by its suckers,
the men would have had no chance
of capturing if. / have just been ex-
amining and measuring my prize,
and certainly it is one of the most
extraordinary and horrible creatures
ever drawn from the great deep. The
entire length of the body is about
| nine feet, and about Eve feet in girth
| at the thickest part. The back i:
small-not much bigger than mans
| fit-and shaped exactly like that ol
a parrot. Round the head eighI
arms extended, two of them being
tentacles, twenty-five feet in length
| iribbon-like stripes, not more thar
two inches in circumference, anC
armed at the extremities with row
of suckers, having teethed edges
The remaining six are powerful
arms, each six feet in length, and a
| the junction with the body almos
| as thick as a mans thigh. They
taper to a fine point, and are almost
entirely covered with large suckers
lhaving dentisulated edges, denim
| ishing in size toward the extremi
| ties, where they are no larger than {
split pea. Clssped in these siz
Eclammy arms, with some 300.suck
ers acting at one moment, and theil
sharp edges sinking into the flesh
and seeming to drink the blood, how
poWerless and hapless a victim would
at once become! The suckers stand
out prominently from the surface o1
the arm, to which each is attached by
a stout ligature. How the creature
can work these long tentacies, which
are but strip of cartilage, darting
them with almost lightning speed;
is inconceivable. 1t seems to me
that theY must be used as cables to
lanchor itself to the rocks, or to the
bottom of the sea, where the water
is shallow, and thus give it spur
chase in grasping its prey. Pos
sibly, too, they may be used as or
gans Of locomotion in moving for
ward along the bottom of the sea, OF
for the purpose of grasping more dis
tant objects, and drawing them with
in the reach Of the shorter and stout
er arms. The long arms of this spec
linen are very much thinner, and not
within ten feet Of being as long as
the arms brought in by the fisher
men of Portugal Cove, which must
have belonged to a very much larger
cutie. Although, my specimen is 8
wonderful sight-a huge cartilagin'
GUS tube surmounted with a beak
and eyes, but no face, around which
the immense arms radiate like the
spikes of q wheel. The glutinous
mass has a ivid, corpse-liks appear.
ance. If fBarnum had it In his show
room, what rush there would be to
see it! At present it occupies an
ignoble position on the floor of an
clubhouse, but 1 am taking measures
to have it preserved.-TorOntO Globe