Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-02-14
CAPTURE of TWO MORE DEvIL-FIsH
Unfortunate Result of Fishermen's IL.
nprance.


Unfortunate Result of Fishermen's IL.
norance.
On the ID of December last William
Budget, fisherman residing in place
called Three Arms, saw, after a heavy
gale of wind. huge shapeless mass on
the beach. 1t proved TO be "a big
sQuid," re our fishermen call them,
which had oecn cast up by the waves,
and il was dead when discovered. I'm.
fortunately, Budget did not know the
value of his discovery. Had he pre-
served it perfect and put it into strong
brine and brought it to st. Johns he
could have sold it for large sum
probably $500 or 800. | have instrue-
tons from an eminent English Eoologist
to secure for him good specimen, at
almost any cost, and to despatch it 10
London in alcohol. The poor fisher
man had some hungry dogs at home,
and here he thought he had secured
them u winters diet.
Accordingly he cut it up into several
it to his residence in Three Arms. My
informant, very intelligent person,
who was on q visit in that quarter on
business, arrived ut Budgell's house
soon after he had brought it home in y
mutilatcd state, and carefully measured
some portions with his own hand. He
found that the body measured fifteen
feet from the beak to the end of the
tail, which is five feet longer than the
New York specimen. The circumfer-
ence of tie body nj its thickest part
was twelve feet. He found only one of
the short arms perfect, which was six
teen feet in length, being five feet longer
than n similar arm of the New York
specimen, and he describes it rs chick
er than mans thigh"
The devil.fish has ten arms, two of
them, called tentacles, being usually
about three or four times the length Of
the other eight arms, but quite slender
in comparison. Now if one of the
stoutest arms was sixteen feet, the ten
tacles would he forty-eight feet, which
quite exceeds the dimensions of any
specimen previously found. The ten
tacles OF the New York specimen were
thirty feet i'll length, thin and tough us
leather.
The second specimen, whose capture
| have to narlate, was taken under
more picturesque circumstances, and
greatly exceeded the former III dimen-
stems of body. On The % day Of No
vember last Stephen Sherring. fisher
man residing in Thimble Tickle, not
far from the locality where the other
devil-tish was cast ashore, was out in Il
boat with two other men; not far from
the shore, they observed some bulky
object, and supposlng it might he part
of wreck, they rowed toward il, and,
too their horror, found themselves
close to huge fish, having large CLASSY
eyes, which was making desperate
efforts to escape, and churning the
water into foam by the motion of its
immense arms and tail. TWAS aground
and the tide was ebbing. From the
funnel at the back of its head it was
electing large volumes of water, this
being its method of moving backward,
the force of the stream, by the reaction
of the surrounding medium, driving it
in the required direction. AT times the
water from the siphon was black us
ink.
Finding the monster partially dis
abled, the fishermen plucked up cour-
age and ventured near enough to
throw the grapnel of their boat, the
sharp tiukes of which, having barbed
points, sunk into the soft body. To
the grapnel they had attached a stout
rope which they had carried ashore
and tied to n tree, so rs to prevent the
fish from going out with the tide. 1t
was happy thought, for the devil-iish
found himself eflectually moored to the
shore. His struggles We're terrific ms
he flung his ten arms about i'll dying
agony. The fishermen took care to
keep respectful distance from the
long tentacles which ever and anon
darted out like great tongues from the
central mass. AT length it became ex-
hausted ana as the water receded 1t ex-
PRED.
The fishermen, alas! knowing no bet
ter, proceeded to convert il into dogs
meat. 1t was splendid specimen
the largest yet taken-the body meas
uriug twenty feet from the beak to the
extremity of the tail. 1t was thus ex-
actly double the size of the New York
specimen, and five feet longer than the
one taken by Budget. The circum-
ference Of the body is not stated, but
one Of the arms measured thirty FIVE
feet. This must have been tenacle. =
Newfoundland letter TO Boston Traveller.
THE PRESIDENT OF FRANCE.