The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-21
TWO MONSTERS OF THE DEEP.
The Most Gigantic Devil Fishes Ever Yet
Captured In American Waters.
Ist. Johns IN. FL Correspondence Toronto
L

have Just received intelligence of the cap
ture OF two more Of those gigantic cephala-
pods, or devil fish, for which Newfoundland of
late years has become celebrated; and these
are Of such enormous size as to throw into
the shade all the previous specimens OF these
monsters Of the deep which have been taken.
In 1873 l described In your columns the first
perfect specimen of the giant cutties ever OBJ
tanned. and which 1t was my good fortune to
secure. 1t was captured In q herring net in
Logic bay, three miles from st. johns. The
body was seven feet In length and five and
q half feet In circumference. The long
feet, the eight shorter six feet.
Since 1878 several other specimens have
been cast ashore, but all were destroyed
by the fishermen, who, OF course, did not
know that they were OF any Importance. In
September, 1877, a fine specimen wastaken at
Catalina, Trinity Bay. and brought In per-
feet condition to ST. Johns. where it was ex-
hibited for several days, and then purchased
for the New York Aquarium, where 1t at
tracted thousands Of visitors. 1t was after
wards exhibited In the leading cities OF the
United States. and realized large sum of
money for It's proprietors. No doubt, as it is
the only perfect specimen In existence, II will
continue to attract attention and be source
Of revenue. The body OF this specimen. was
10 feet In length, the tentacleS 80 feet and the
shorter arms IL feet The ten arms had on
them not less than 1000 suckers.
The specimen is now eelipsed by two which
have been recently captured near the head OF
Notre Dame Bay; but ] am sorry to say that
both have been cut up and destroyed by fish
ermen who took them. On the second OF last
November fisherman named Stephen Sher-
ring was In boat with two ether 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 from the shore
a shapeess mass. which appeared to be in
motion. On approaching nearer they saw it
was an extraordinary fish OF some kind,
which had been left aground by the ebbing
tide. and was struggling hard to escape In
its frantic efforts 1t flung it's huge arms about
lashing the water into foam, and from fun
mel behind the head 1t spOuted streams of
water, which was occasionally darkened by
being intermixed with an inkV fluid. Great
CLASSY eyes struck terror into the hearts
of the fishermen and for O time they
looked on Ia silent horror at the contOrtionS
of the huge monster. 1t was deyil-fish,
which had been driven by heavy gale OF
wind into the shallower water, and, the tide
having receded, it was powerlesS to escape.
The spouts OF water were from the syphon,
which is its chief organ OF locomotiOn. It
draws In the water, then elects 1t through this
tube with immense force and the reaction of
the surrounding medium drives it backward
with immense rapidty Through the same
tube 1t elects an inky fluid when attacked or
alarmed, and darkens the water all around.
The fishermen at length plueked up courage,
as they saw 1t getting exhausted, and ap-
preached near enough to throw the small
grapnel of their boat, whose fiukes, having
barbed points, sunk into its soft flesh. A
stout rope had been attached to the grapnel,
which they now carried ashore and fastened
to the trunk Of tree.
prisoner, and when the tide receded COM
pletelt he was left 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, where they
could have sold 1t for $500 or $500. But they
only knew Of 1t as "big squid," and cut It
IN for dogs meat. The body was twenty feet
in length, and the long arms thirty-flve feet:
The body was thus exactly double the size OF
the specimen in New York, 80 that 1t is con-
sjderably the largest devil fish yet captured.
A second devil fish was taken at the South
Arm of Green Bay, NOtre Dame Bay, on the
second Of last December, by fisherman
named VIM. Budget, resident in Three Arms,
at no great distance from the scene OF the
former occurrence He 1ound III on shofe
quite dead, and no doubt It had been forced In
on the shore on a high tide, by storm, and
SO stranded. AS in the former case, it was
cut up and sailed as food for dogs, or Tor bait
Nv informant, however, was able 10 make
actual measurements by putting the pieces
together, and he found the body, from the
bcak to the extremity OF the tail, to be
fifteen feet In length and twelve feet In cir.
conference at the thickest part. Only one of
the shorter arms was found perfect, ana thls
measured sixteen feet and was thicker than q
mans thigh. The longer tentacles were cut
up, but these are usually three times the
length of the shorter arms, and so must nave
been over forty-five feet. Had the tentacles,
therefore, been stretched out, the monster
would have measured sixty-fiye feet from the
extremity Of the tentacles to the tip OF the
tail, the body being twenty feet In length.
The beak and portions of the head and skin
have been preserved In salt.
Judging by the size Of the Thmble Tickle
specimen, compared with the proportions OF
the one in New York, which had 1000 suckers,
great and small. should say that the former
must have had $500 or 5000 suckers, and a
powerful horny beak, in shape like that OF
parrot proportionately larger than q that o.
arms, with their thousands Of suckers acting
like cupping-g glasses, and sinking into TN the
flesh, to say nothing Of the powerful beak
rending the victim. would produce q very I'M
comfortable sensation.
- .
A Tough story.
pinpanr prnaa |