Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-11-04
THE GIANT SQUlD.
THE MOST FRIGHTFUL OF ALL
MARINE MONSTERS.
Full-tirown Ones Weigh 10000
Pounds and Have Arms 100
Feet Long-rhc Octopus
and the Devil Fish.
UNDOUBTEDLY the giant

marine monster norrlOle, says IhO OVS'0"
Transcript, this huge and frlghtfu'
mollusk may be said to compare very
favorably with any creature OF fact or
fiction. When full grown it weighs
10000 pounds, having body fifty feet
long and two arms, each 100 feet in
length, as we'll as eight smaller tentaclcs'
A model of diminutive individual,
measuring only forty-two feet from the
end of its tail to either tentacular ex'
tremity, is on exhibition at tine National
Museum in Washington. Specimens oil
this kind are not infrequent!y en-
counte.ed by fishermen in the Indian
Ocean. where "the humble toiler OF the
sea must be prepared at any time to sec
q mopstrous creature with enormous
goggling eyes rise out OF the depths and
fling across his boat gigantic tentacIe
armed with scores of suckers so power
full 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 at hand a keen knife with which
to slash off the tentacle before 1t has
dragged him overheard in fatal en-
brace. He must work quickly, Tor the
monster has enotheY tentacle to help him
IN the attack, and it is hardly an even
fight between one or two men aud
beast with an arm-reach OF one hundred
feet"
Such is the appalling description given
nv the author OF "Sea Monsters Uu-
masked" of the giant squid. GAS for
the victim" he adds, "once captured
and held fast by the horrible sucking
tentacles he is drawn into the closer EN-
brace Of the creatures eight short arms,
which are likewise equipped with suck
ers. end the frightful animal sinks with
its captive to the bottom, where it tears
him to pieces with its powerful parrot
like beak, goggliug the while with crest
greeulsh eyes over its hideou' 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 a supposed giant
souid. These great mollusSs not intro-
quently run ashore, aud they are very
numerous in the North Atlantic. In
fact, they are SO plentiful intlo'e 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 Teneriffe, the French steamer
"Alecton," commanded by Lieutenant
Bouyer, came upon an enormous speci-
men asleep. Many bullets that were
fred 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 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 affi1ayits made By the Off
GERS and crew Of the barque "Pauline, "
they all saw three large sperm whales off
the lee bow. Suddenly strange aud
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 held-foremost to
the bottom.
The giant squid swims backward by
expeling a stream Of water from huge
sphon 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 snake
in motion.
In the National Museum is hideous
reproduction in pspier mache Of thai
other fhghtful mollusk, the poulp OF
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 aud prey. A mau who il
30 unfortunate as to come within reach
is at once embraced. Instantaueously
the 2istons of hundreds OF suckers that
cover the eight tentacles are drawn in
ward, the air is removed from the pneu-
matte holders, and. a vacuum being
created in each, the victim is so pinioned
that hardly a struggle is possible. The
other arms are Immediately wrapped
about him, aud he is drawn into closer
embrace, to be torn to pieces By tho
creatures beak and absorbed.
The Chinese regard these octopods as
q great delicacy for eating, and they are
similarly relished Ia many other parts OF
the world. In the Mediterranean nu-
menous species Of than. mostly of ANAL