Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-26

pleasantly acquainted for many centuries. In
fact, the professional angler in those south
seas is compelled constantly to indulge rather
exciting anticipation of meeting one, and Ger.
tain percentage of loss of life consequent upon
these encounters is a matter of regular estimate
In the business, for the humble toiler of the
sea. while engaged in his peaceful employment,
must be prepared at any time to see mon
strous creature with enormous goggling eyes
rise out of the depths and fling across his boat
agigantic tentacle armed with scores of suck
ers SO powerful that nothing short Of horse
power can pull them of from the object to
which they have been once attached. For such
An adventure the fisherman has always ready
at hand keen knife with which to slash off the
tentacle before it has dragged him overheard
in fatal embraced. He must work quickly, for
the monster has another tentacle to help him
in the attack, and it is hardly an even fight
between one or two men and a creature with
an arm reach of 100 feet.
Such and even greater are the proportions
reached by the giant squid. which is con-
sidered by some excellent authorities to be in
actual truth not only the supposed sea serpent
but the semi-fabulous kraken as we'll II in
habits all seas, though it is most numerously
found IN tropical waters. A ll-grown speci
men weighs more than 10, 600 pounds has a
body 80 feet in length and, besides its eight
smaller tentacles, Is armed with two greater
tentacles for purposes Of attack each 100 long,
the greatest dimension of the animal being
stories are told OF Its attacking ships and even
dragging them under the seal As for the poor
fisherman, once captured and held fast by the
horrible sucking tentacles he is drawn into the
closer embrace Of the beasts eight other arms
which are likewise equipped with suckers and
the frightful creature sinks with its captive to
the bottom, where 1t tears him to pieces at its
leisure with Its powerful parrot-like beak
Should il be frightened while engaged at its
hideous meal il discharges from an organ
called its ink bag fluid which renders the
water round about as black as night for hun
dreds Of yards, thus effectuslly concealing it.
self
Is THE GIANT sQUrD THE SEA SERPENT?
This is the creature which not a few men of
science declare to be what those who thought
they had seen the great serpent of the sea
have attempted to describe. The accompany
ing illustrations show il in the act of swimming
In its accustomed fashion during calm weather
with large part OF its body elevated above
the water. Extended observations of small
specimens made in the aquarium at Brighton,
England, have demonstrated the fact that this
IL Its fayorite method of feeding. Inasmuch as
10 always swlms backward. making progress by
erpelling water resrward from big siphon in
Its body, observers casually viewing a giant
squid at sea may have most naturally imagined
that the part going first was the head the an
pearance OF tentacle appraised In the water,
e In the picture. being mistaken for a tail
such, at all events. is a theory maintained
with great array of evidence apparently most
valuable. For the present, however, il must
remain disputed question whether this ami
NAL OF fact Is to take the place Of the sea SER
pent OF ancient and respected tradition 1t is
worth saying, by the way, that the two great
snakes which attacked the LAGOON family NAV
very well have been the two great tentacles OF
giant squid, making allowance for errors of
tradition.
A sOCrD NlyrG ATr~a
The "krsken," which advocates OF the oian.
squid theory Likewise identify with the same
monster, was believed for centuries to inhabi.