The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-01-30
A MONSTER OF THE DEEP.

particulars of the devil-fish seen off the
coast of Newfoundland, q short ac-
count of which we published few days
ago:
All readers of Victer Hugo's "Toilers
of the Sea" will have a vivid recollection
eff his thrilling description of Gilliatt' S
combat with the devil-fsh, or kraken of
the ancient legends. A majority of
readers of that romance regard this fish
as a pure creation of the eminent
writer's imagination, and never suspect
that it has counterpart in nature. OF
course, all who have even a slight ac-
quaintance with natural history are
aware that there are such things as cut
fetish, or, as scientific men call them,
cephalOpOds, of considerable dimen-
siOns, and possessed of formidable
weapons. Most naturalists, however,
doubt or deny the existence of a gigan-
tic species of cuttle-fish, having a body
thirty or forty feet in length, and arms
of corresponding size, regarding which
rumOrs are occasionally prevalent, as in
the case of the sea-serpent. Stories are
told of such creatures having been seen
in tropical seas, and of their having
dragged ships under water by their
| huge tentacles, but no one believes that
/
attitudes. The appearance a few days
| since of one of them, possessed of gi-
gantic proportions, in one of our bays,
about nine miles from st. Johns viii,
therefore, awaken general interest, es-
pecially among naturalists. | must
premise that [ have been specially care
full to verify every statement l am abont
to make, and the fortunate circum-
stance of obtaining possession of an
arm of this monster furnished proof,
incontrOvertible, not only of the
reality of its appearance, but also of its
vast bulk. Now for our story of the
/ devll-fish.
On the 9th of October last two fish
/ ermen were out in a small punt, off
/ Portugal Cove, in Conception Bay.
| When near the eastern end OF Belle Isle
/ they observed some object floating on
/ the surface of the water, which they at
| first took to be large sail or portion of
/ a wreck. Having rOwed close TO it, one
/ of the men struck it with his boat
hook, when suddenly the mass became
animated and put itself in motion.
From amid the folds a huge parTot-like
. beak, as large" they declare, 'as
siX-gallOn key, reared itself, and pair
of CHASTITY green eyes, staring and
prominent, glared on the terrOr-stricken
men with an expression of the most lu-
tense ferocity The beak struck the
bottom of the boat violently; and sud
denly, from around the head, two arms
of cOrpse-like freshness darted ont and
began winding themselves round the
boat. and encircling it in their liyid
folds. A moment more and the boat
would have been dragged beneath the
waves, and the unfortunate men would
/ have been brought within reach of the
terrible beak and torn to pieces. But
/ before the suckers with which the arms
are furnished had closed with their
deadly grip, one of the men seized p
| tomahawk, which was fortunately at
hand, and severed both arms as they lay
over the gunwale of the boat. This I'M
/ expected surgical operation seems to
have struck terror into the monster, for
it Immediately elected an immense
quantity of inky fluid, which darkened
/ the water for 200 or 800 yards, and
moved off from the boat. The men saw
| it for a few minutes after, with its tail
out of the water, which they declare to
have been ten feet across. The body
I they estimate to have been sixty feet in
/ length and five feet in diameter, or if
/ teen feet in girth. As the occurrence
/ took place in broad daylight, and the
/ men were close to the creature, and had
! every opportunity OF observing 1t be-
/ fore they were alarmed, am inclined
! to place implicit reliance upon their
statement, more especially as their estl-
mate of its enormous dimensions is fully
corro6orated by the size Of the arms
which they brought ashore as trophies
in their boat.
nj Of 10
| pOrtance of their prize, and [ regret to
say that one of the arms was destroyed
or lost I am assured, however, by the
Clergyman of the settlement, that it was
ten inches in diameter, and that the
portion cut off was about six feet in
length. The other longer arm they
brought to St. Johns, but not before six
feet of it were destroyed. This portion
has been carefully examined by myself
and Mr.. Alexander Murray, T. q. S.,
our able geographical surveyor, and
after getting it photographed we placed
/ it in our museum. 1t measures nineteen
feet, and is but three inches and a half
in circumference It's color Is a pale
pink. It is entirely cartilaginous, pIia-
bic and tough as leather, and almost as
strong as steel. Toward the extremity
it brOadeIs out like an oar, and is there
upward OF six inches in circumference,
then it tapers to pretty fine point
This extremity, for about two feet, is
thickly covered with suckers, which
diminish in size toward the point. The
cluster at the extreme end numbers
about seventy suckers, some of them
very small, and all having round their
margin fine sharp teeth. A membrane
is stretched across each, which could be
drawn back at the will of the animal,
thus creating a vacuum, and causing the
sharp. denticulated edges of the disc to
press against the skin of the victim and
even to sink into the flesh. The force
with which these suckers cling is very
great, being equal to the weight of the
water that is above them, added to the
weight of the atmosphere. Next to this
/ mass of small suckers come two rows Of
very large suckers, twenty-fOur in num-
Der, each having a membraneous disc
| an inch and a quarter in diameter, with
a circular aperture IN the center. A
cone shaped mass OF flesh fills this aper-
| ture, like a piston, capable of being
drawn backward and the membraneous
l disc itself can also be drawn, thus
) greatly increasing the adhesive power.
The edges of these large suckers are
/, not denticulated, but consist of a firm,
fieshy, cartiIaginous ring. This cluster
of powerful suckers is succeeded by g
second OF smaller ones, similar to the
= first group, and having also denticulated
/ edges. They number about fifty. The
| remainder of the arm has about forty
: small suckers distributed along its under
surface at short distances, and also about
the same number of little rounded pus
tules having no visible opening. The
: whole number of suckers on the under
| surface of the arm is about $50. This
= surface is flat and two inches in breadth
The upper surface is rounded, an6
| toward the extremity has a small mem
7 braneous crest. The original length OF
this arm must have been thirty-fvt
, feet. The men declare that they left
ten feet of it attached to the body OF
}, the fish, six feet were destroyed ashore
: through carelessneSs, and nineteen feet
It remain and are now in the museum.
The size of the body, as estimated by
}, the fishermen, was sixty feet in length
n and fifteen feet in orirth with q fail no.