The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1894-03-21
DANGEROUS cAREsses.
Divers Fight Desperately to Escape the
Embrace of the Devilfsh.

Divers Fight Desperately TO Escape the
Embrace of the Devilfsh.
1.-The devilfsh is the divers greatest dan,
ger" said T p H Whiteiaw an experience
ed diver, in conversation with a San Fran
cisco Chronicle reporter. Where diver
is working alone these devilfsh are really
dangerous, though where there are others
down with him there isn't any great dan
ger, as the divers could cut the devilfsh
to pieces before he could iuiure man or
tangle his apparatus The fact that the
fish discoors the water makes it impossi
BILE for the diver to see what tQ,do when he
is attacked and makes him feel the danger
of the dark One of them caught me once
while working off the FaralIones, but it
was a little one only about six feet long,
and | cut off it's tentacles as fast as he put
them on me,
They'll fight hard enough when attack
ed, but they do not seek a man to injUe
him If the diver happens to come upon
one of them when he is at Work, it is apt to
fasten to him and draw him into its EN-
brace. But they have no power to injure a
man except by crushing and rending, as
their mouths are only the size, shape and
strength of the beaks of cockatoos Their
power to rend is not sufficient to tear man
limb from limb, but of course they might
kill diver by tangling his tube and shut
ting off the air. They have little swimming
force, and all these stories about their tow
ing large vessels are bosh. Their power is
in muscular contraction, and before they
can exert it they must first faSten to rock
or some heavy object. Even then their
strength is not tremendous
L. As-r. -, i, s-l,,
pontoons in Discovery bay in 1884 1t fas
tened to a rock which weighed while sub
merged just 10 pounds. When out of the
water, it weighed 260 pounds. The devil
fish could lift the rock to the surface and
partially out of water, but was not strong
enough to lift it entirely free This fish
vas II feet inches from Zip to zip, and
estimated his rending power at about 900
pounds because he couldn't lift the go
pound rock
Il don't think the devilfsh can see
through the black fluid it emits when dis
turbed any more than man can, but it has
much more power of feeling, and a man has
to cut very lively to Top away those tenta
Giles.
"Of course there are sharks about the
wrecks-plenty of them. But never knew
the escaping air bubbling from his helmet
scares the fish away Then, too, each dyer
carries a knife, and shark would be no
match for him. The largest man eater
ever saw along this coast was II feet long,
though the bone sharks ran as high as 40 to
so feet il length. They are harmless, how
ever, as far as man is concerned. The little
pilotfish, which goes ahead of the man
eater, pointing the way, never approaches
diver, so the shark doesn t attack him,
though the attack will come quick enough
once the diving suit is removed.
Sea lions are also quite dangerous to the
diver, though they never attack him or in
jure him Intentionally. But once a sea lion
gets after fish he doesn't stop for any
thing, and in passing diver is apt to knock
him over and tumble him all in heap. The
diver, with all his weight, is a mere moth
ing in the sea lions path.
1.-THE whales are harmless. Sometimes
they come ana play about the wreck, but
they show little curiosity regarding the
divers and never offer an assault.
"Do l ever find any treasure? Very little.
| hear of great deal, but when it comes to
finding it, it ISM there People generally
manage to save their gold and jewelry, and
then they say they lost everything with the
ship. The divers search the trunks and
chests, but rarely come across anything of
large value"