The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-04-26
TWO MONSTERS OF THE SEA.
The Most Gigantic Devil-F1shes Ever Se'
..nptnred I'm American winters
st. Johns IN. Ed Cor. Toronto Gil

! rantlIre OF Two more OF GHe ElShhOI'
cepnalopods, or devil!fish, for which
Newfoundland of late years has become
celebrated; and these are Ot such enor
mnus size as to throw into the shade al
the nrevious specimens of these monster
of the deep which have been taken. n
1873 I described in your columns Jht
first perfect specimen OF the giant cutTiei
ever Obtaineti and which 1t was my go0C
fprtune to secure. 1t was captured in &
herring net in Logic Bay, three miller
! from st, IOhn's. The body was sever
feet in length and five and q halt teet IL
circumference. Tine long arms or ten
tacles were twenty-four feet, the eight
shorter six teet. Since 1873 several
other specimens have been cast ashore,
but eli were DESTROYED by the fishermen,
who. of course, did not know that they
were of any Importance. In Septsmher,
1877, a fine specimen was taken at Oata'
lima, Trinity Bay, and brought In per-
feet condition to St. Johns, where 1t
was exhibited for several days, and then
nurchassd for the New York aquarium,
where it attracted thousands of visitors.
1T was afterwards exhibited in the lead-
ing cities of the United States, and real,
lied q large sum OF money for its prop~ie.
tors Ne doubt as ii is the only perfect
specimen in existence, it will continue
to attract attention and be q source OF
revenue. The body of this specimen
was ten feet III length, the tentacles
thirty feet, and the shorter arms eleven
feet The ten arms had on them not
less than 1000 suckers.
That spec men is now eclipsedby two
which have been recently captured near
the head of Notre Dame bay; but am
sorry TO say that both have been cut ND
and destroyed by the fishermen who took
them. On the I'd of last November o
fisherman named stephen Sherring was
ID boat with two other men at place
called Thimble Tickle, NOT many miles
from the celebrated Little Bay Copper
Mine, which ] described in the columns
OF the Globe. They observed not far
form the shore shapeless mass, which
appeared TO be in motion. On approach
ing nearer they saw it was an extra
ordinary fish of some kind, which had
been left aground by the ebbing tide
and was struggling bard to escape. In
its frantic efforts it flung its huge arms
about, lashing the water into foam, and
from funnel behind the head itspouted
streams of water, which was occasionally
darkened by being intermixed with an
inky fluid. Great CLASSY eyes struck
terror into the hearts of the fishermen
and Tor time they looked on in siIen
horror at the lcontortion of the hing
monster. Ut was devil-fish, which had
been driven by q heavy gale of wind into
the shallower water, and, the tide having
receded, itwas powerless to escape. The
spouts of water were from the syphone
which is its chief .organ of locomotion
It draws in the water, then elects it
through this tube with immense force,
and the reaction OF the surrounding
medium drives it backward with great
rapidity. Through the same tube it
elects an inky fluid, when attacked or
alarmed, and darkens the water all
around The fishermen at length
plucked up courage, as they saw it get
ting exhausted, and approached near
enough to throw the small grapnal of
their boat, whose fukes, having barbed
points, sunk into it's soft flesh a stout
rope had been attached to the grapnel
which they now carried ashore and
fastened to tine trunk of q tree,
The Iowerful .Cevii-fish Was thus made
q prisoner, and when the tide receded
completely he was lett dry on the strand
and soon expired. Had the poor men
known what an interest now attaches to
these marine monsters, they could have
preserved it in brine and brought it to
st. Johns, eretthey could have sold it
for $500 or $500. But they only knew
of it as q "Dig sguid," and cur it up for
tioge' meat. The body was twenty feet
in length, and the long arms thirty.ive
feet. The body was thus exactly double
the size of the specimen now in New
York, 80 that it is considerably the
largest Sdevil-hsh yet captured.
a second cdevil-iish was taken at the
south arm OF Green Bay, Notre Dame
Bay, on the I'd of last December, by "a
fisherman named William Budgell, resi-
dent in Three Arms, at no great distance
from the scene of the former occurrence.
He ionnd it ON shore quite dead, and no
doubt lit had been forced in on the shore,
on aihigh tide, by a STORM, and 80 strand
ed. AS in the former case, it was cut up
and salted as food for dogs, or for bait.
My informant, however, was able to
make actual measurements by putting
the pieces together, and he found the
body, from the ibeak to the extremity of
the tail, TO be fifteen feet in length, and
twelvefeet in cifcnmterenceat the thick
est part. Only one of the shorter arms
was found perfect, and this measnred
sixteen ieet and was thicker than a iman's
thigh. The longer tentacles were eutup,
but these are usually three times the
llengthof the shorter arms, and 90 must
have boon over forty-6Se feet. Had the
tantacles, therefore, been stretched out,
the monster would have measured six.y