Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-02-13
THE DEVII-FISH.


VIcToR HUGO, in his "Toilors of the
Sea-" gave an elaborate and painfully in
teresting description of a marine monster
which he most appropriately called The
Devil-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, roared 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, 81 dunno, for de
debbil has hold of mep
Either his noise, or the pressure he
brought to bear, caused the fish to turn, sc
that it soon ran on the shadows.
Those in the rescuing boats then at
tackled it with boat-hooks, pitchforks, and
whatever other weapons came to hand
until finally it was killed. 1t proved to
be a female specimen of the Cephdlopterd
UdnpiruS, or ocean-vampIe, also called
the sea-devil. 1t nearly covered the floor
of the small room in which it was exhib
tied, measuring nine feet across, and hav.
ing the form of a 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 and
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 negro's
anchor.
Some years ago "school" of them ap'
peared off Cape May. The neighboring
fishermen became quite excited, and went
after them in 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 Inde'
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
kept busy until dawn in carrying away
the flesh.
The devil-fsh of Victor Hugo belongs
to different class. 1t is a CephaIop0dd,
or head-footed, because the feet, or rather
arms, spring directly from the head.
Most of them have horny beak like
that of parrot, except that the under
part 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.. Beale, an Englishman, who had
gone ashore on one of the Bonin Islands
to look for shells, noticed suddenly at his
feet an extraordinary looking animal
crawling toward the surf, which it had
on its eight legs, which, from their soft
and flexible nature, bent considerably
under the weight of its body, so that il
was lifted by its efforts but little above
the rocks. 1t appeared much alarmed al
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 or
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 asunder by the united
efforts of himself and the creature. He
then gave it a powerful jerk
wishing to disengage it from the rocks
to which it clung so forcibly by
its suckers. This effort it etfectually
resisted; but the moment after, the ap
parently enraged animal lifted its head
with its large projecting eyes, and, loos
ening its hold upon the rock, suddenly
sprang upon Mr.. Beale's arm, and clung
to it by means of its suckers with greai
power, endeavoring to get its beak, which
could now be seen between the roots OF
its arms, in position to bite. A sensa
tion 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 sickening; and he called loud
ly to the captain, who was at some dis
tance, 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 tn,
beak of the octopus away from his hand
soon released him by destroying his tor
mentor with the boat-knife, which he ac
complished by cutting away portions at {
time.
Let us now see how large these formid
able creatures sometimes grow. A re
cent writer October 25, 1879 says tha
the Italian fishermen of San Francisco
who frequent the Farallone Islands, anC
go down the coast, not unfrequenlly taxi
these devil,fish from eight TO ten fee
across; and, someAmonths ago, he saw
one hanging at door that measured a
least nine feet from tip to tip of the ten
tacles. In 1855, Captain Hygrom brough
to Copenhagen, from the Bahama Islands
one of these fish eighteen feet long
Pliny speaks of one that infested th,
coast of Spain, deyouring the fish and dc
stroying the fisheries. II weighed sever
hundred pounds, aud its arms were NOR
| than thirty feet long. SWedianer report