San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-03-02
CAUGHT BY An OCTOPUS.
A PuIlon Market flslerman's story OF an Ad'eu
ture on the Pacific Cast.
Nav York Suul

nook. The creatures body VAS ABOUT
tie size of mans fist, Of mcttlcd
brown color. From il extruded eight
long feelers lined with suckers, and at
the base two black horny bills pro-
truded. ats an octopus, or sea spider.
[ have a standing order from China,
man mp town to get them whenever l
can, and once in great while one is
sent north or from California, and L
buy il and let him know. For some
museum? Bless you, no. He eats
them, and by the price he pays, they
must be extra nice. l reckon thereIl
he grand spread over this one. IL
measures three feet across, which is
about the ordinary size, although L
have seen them nearly three times as
big. ID rather meet half dozen
sharks than one octopus. In almost
any market in San Francisco you will
find them from ten to twelve feet long.
They are sold by the pound to the
Chinese, and sometimes to Frenchmen
and Italians. I kept a stall there once,
and have sold hundreds OF them. The
Chinese call them Chang Kwei Yu, and
they are very fond of them. Italians
and Frenchmen always wanted them
cleaned, but Cinnamon wouldn't buy
them unless they were whole. l didn't
understand this until one day when 1
sold about fifty of them to an old Chi
naman, who was so particular about
their having bills and suckers on that l
sent boy to follow him. He traced
him to Chinese doctor, who paid the
old chap more for the suckers and bills
than he had paid me for the entire lot.
It seems that these parts were very
valuable to them as medicine; so after
that 1 made just double on my sales.
They taste something like frogs, but
are too soft and ielly-like to suit me.
Angel Island is great place for them,
and any pleasant day you can see Chi
namen bunting among the rocks at low
tide, or hauling long nets for them.
"The largest one ever saw alive had
q spread of about twenty-five feet. 1t
was q good many years ago. L was
knocking about Frisco, where net a
friend who had got together party to
60 up the coast somewhere near Van
couver's Island and hunt for a rich
wreck, and I shipped. We discovered
the old hulk in about four fathoms. In
the crew were two half-breeds from
Mexico, who could stay under water, it
seemed to me, about ten minutes. They
were pes-1 divers from the Panama
coast, and when they went down they
carried heavy stone to sink them, and
a rope to make fast to anything they
could find. When the Oldest diver
slipped over we could follow him on
the bottom by the air bubbles. His
mate held small life line that he sig
nailed by. In about four minutes the
signal came, and we hauled away. He
came aboard with Jump, and said that
he had hooked on to a cask or box,
and that as soon as he moved it a cloud
of mud or sand rose, as if some big fish
had moved, and, thinking Of sharks, he
had come up for his knife, which ne
generally took down at first. He
seemed somewhat winded, and the
other man said he would go. Taking a
sharp knife in his mouth, he was low
cred down, and was soon out of sight.
After he had been down. about five
minutes there came q pull on the life
line that nearly jerked the skipper
overheard. We pulled and pulled until
it was evident something was wrong,
and we all gave way hard, and by the
way it cane we thought the whole
wreck was afoul. In half minute we
lad Pedros head out OF water, but the
sight of it almost made us drop the
line. The poor fellow seemed almost
covered with mass of snakes, that
were twisted all over him. The arms
and legs OF the animal writhed about,
some around his neck, others around
his arms and body, while fastened to
his breast was big bag-like body with
a pair of eyes like cats, with the same
green light you see in them in the dark.
The skipper and the other diver knew
what it was, and sung out for knives.
We couldn't get it on deck, because
three or four of its arms were slung
around the bow cable. The diver low
cred himself, and putting his knife in
under the animal, he slit it in two. The
skipper in the meantime was at work In
the forechains, and he cut off the arms.
Then with a jerk we had the man on
deck. He was half dead, and we had
to cut the octopus from him piece by
niece. and even after it was cut up the
two Jaws chung to his chest and had to
be cut out. 1t took us half an hour to
clear him, as each sucker-and there
were hundreds of them-brought blood
when il was torn of. We filed two
barrels with the pieces that we took
from him, and the whole animal must
haved weighed $50 pounds, and proba,
bly more. We put it together, after
ward on the deck, and it measured from
the tip of one arm to the top of the OPP
posite one % feet.
at seems that the first man down