Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1892-12-02
THE GIANT SQUlD.
The MOST FRIGHTrUL OF ALL
MARINE MONsTEIsS
fuIi-Srown Ones Weigh 10000
Pounds and Have Arms 100
Feet Long-rhe Octopus
and thc Devil Fish.

| quentiy been mistaken for sea serpent,
la all qualities which can render Q
marine monster horrible, says the Bos tor
Transcript, this huge and frigbtfu
moilusk may be said to compare very
favorably with any creature of fact OF
fiction. When full grown it weighs
| 10, 900 pounds, having n body fifty feet
] long and two arms, each 100 feet in
length, rs well rs eight smaller tentacles.
A model Of n diminutiye individual,
measuring only forty-two feet from tn q
end OF its tail to either tentacular ex-
tremity, is on exhibition at the National
Museum in Washington. Specimens of
this kind are not infrequently en-
countcred by fishermen in the Indian
| Ocean, where "thc humble toler of the
sea must be prepared ut any time to see
monstrous creature with enormous
goggling eyes rise out Of tue depths and
ding across his boat gigantic tcntacie
armed with scores OF suckers so power
tul that nothing short OF horse power
can pull them off from the object to
which they have been once fastened.
For such an adventure the fisherman has
always ut hand keen knife with which
TO slash oil the tcntacle before it has
dragged him overheard in fatal en-
brace. He must work quickly, for the
monster has snother tentaclc to help him
IN the attack, and it is hardly IN even
tight between one or two men and u
beast with an arm reach of one hundred
leet."
Such is the appalling description given
by the author of "Sea Monsters I'm
masked" of the giant squid. Gas for
the VICTIM" he adds, ''oncc captured
and held fast by the horrible sucking
sentac!es, he is drawn into the closer en-
brace of the creatures eight short arms.
which are likewise equipped with suck
srs, and the frightful animal sinks with
its captive to the bottom, where it tears
him to pieces with its powerful parrot
like beaS, goggling the while with CREST
sreenish eyes over its hideous repast."
The giant squid, by the way, has eyes
many times bigger than those of any
other known animal, measuring quite
eighteen inches in diameter in a full
grown specimen.
Attempts have been made to identify
this sea serpent with supposed giant
'quid. These great molusks not infre-
9uently run ashore, and they are very
numerous in the North Atlantic. In
fact, they are SO plentiful in those waters
that their dead bodies would frequently
be found floating, were it not that they
afford favorite food for many fishes
and especially for certain whale. On
November 80, 1861, between Madeira
and Tcncriife, the French steamer
"Alecton," commanded by Lieutenant
Bouycr, came upon an enormous speci-
men asleep. Many bullets that were
fired at it passed through its soft flesh
without doing it much harm apparently,
and harpoons buried in its body would not
hold. Finally rope with n running
moose was slipped over the tail of the
animal; but when it was attempted to
hoist it upon deck, the enormous weight
caused the rope to cut through the mass,
which fell and sank. On July S. 1873,
according to afli1avits made by the off
GERS and crew of the barque ''Pauline, 4"
they all saw three large sperm whales oil
the lee bow. Suddenly strange and
unknown monster appeared just ahead
and threw an arm that was quite
one hundred feet long around one
of the whales, encircling the latter three
times, and dragged it head-foremost to
the bottom.
The giant squid swims backward By
expelling stream of water from a huge
siphon with which he is provided. While
feeding at the surface, its tail projects
above, and the convolutions of the long
tentacles following after might easily
produce to the eye the effect of snak e
in motion.
In the National Museum is hideous
| reproduction in papier mache of that
other frightful mollusl, the poulp or
octopus, the specimen represented hav-
ing spread of sixteen feet. This crea-
ture chooses for its haunt some dark
Granny in the rocks, where it lies in
wait, clinging with three or four of its
great arms, while the Others, gliding and
feeling about in the water, are on the
alert to grasp and prey. A man who is
10 unfortunate rs to come within reach
is at once embraced. Instantaueously
The oistons of hundreds of suckers that
cover the eight tentaces are drawn in
ward, the air is removed from the pneu-
matte holders, and, vacuum being
created in each, the victim is SO pinioned
that hardly struggle is possible. The
other arms are Immediately wrapped
about him, and he is drawn into closer
embrace, to be torn to pieces by the
creatures beak and absorbed.
The Chinese regard these octopods ms
a great delicacy for eating, and they are
similarly relished in many other parts oil
the world. In the Mediterranean nu-
merous species of them, mostly of small
size, ME tished for, and along the coast
of Algeria they are caught in very Gu
fious fashion, by means of earthen jugs
sunk IN the water. Probably because
the poulp is soft bodied animal and
therefore an easy prey for many enemies.
1t will eagerly take advantage of an op-
portunity to seek shelter in jug, from
the mouth of which it can spread its
tentacles for prey. Accordingly, it is
not uncommon for the fishermen, on
hauling up these queer traps after few
hours, to find every one of them occu.
| MED nv an octOnua Tn thu rravaa ~ tba