The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-22
HUNTING A DEVILFIsH.
NOVEL AND EXCITING SPORT ON
THE PACIFIC.
Courage and Nerve Required to Land
One of the Uncanny Monsters
Their Enormous Strength.

AS a sport pure and simple, hunting
the devilfsh is perhaps as exciting and
full of incident as can be found. Not
long ago a visitor to San Francisco
saw an octopus hanging in one of the
markets, says the Chronicle, and,
seized with the desire to see the cap
ture of such a creature, followed it up
and engaged the Portuguese fishermen
to take him to the locality not far from
the Golden Gate. The amateur fisher
man was provided with an ordinary
boat hook, which he was told was used
in the capture of the fish, and when the
tide was well out he was taken to a
group of kelp-covered rocks and in
formed that the game was waiting to
be flushed as it were. The place
abounded in pools in which the water
was about foot deep, these being par
TALLY covered with floating weed. Pass
ing from rock to rock the hunter
thrust his hook or spear, turning to
the sand at the bottom of these pools.
He had nearly given UP the chase
when his boat hook gave a violent
wrench under his hands, and up from
the weed came an uncanny arm of livid
and chocolate hues, a finger trembling
with rage and apparently endowed
with intelligence finger lined with
enormous suckers, that hurled itself
about the squid hunters leg so quickly
that before he could make an aggres-
siYe move he was in the arms of the
enemy. AS he fell, slipping partly on
his back, he was Mortified to find that
his prey held on and that he had pulled
! it partly out of the water Struggling
to his feet, he was met by what ap-
peared to be a ball of snakes, with two
green eyes cleaning with rage and
fury, and about which writhed eight
sucker-lined arms. It was enough to
demoraliZe the most intrepid lover of
sport, but the octopus merely hung on,
making no advance. Having gained his
footing, the hunter took the boat hook
by the end and buried it in the with
/ ing mass, from which Immediately an
| inky fluid poured and seemed to dye
| the water black. Waves of color shot
over the arms, and the monster, raising
Itself out of the pool, endeavored to
haul it's way to the ocean. 1t threw its
them about the rock and holding on
with the tenacity of iron, gradually
moving toward the water.
| The body was but a small part of
the affair, perhaps as large as child's
head, and in this the hook was caught.
The octopus slowly gained ground, but
finally the fisherman obtained a brac-
for help. With assistance the animal
was disabled and borne ashore, where
it was found to have a radiaI spread of
nearly eighteen feet.
Octopi of this kind and size are found
all along the upper California coast to
Alaska, some attaining extraordinary
proportions. Curious tales are told con
corning them, several instances being
recorded where they were supposed tc
have caused the death of swimmers
That they are powerful enough tc
drown man there is not the slightest
doubt. One of the size mentioned could
drown three or four men at a time
assuming that they were swimming
and that it could attack them in that
position.
The writer once saw an octopus with
a spread Of but four feet throw down
a man who with others had been lifting
rocks into boat from a reef, carrying
it ashore to save the specimens found
upon them. AS a piece was thrown
upon the beach as big greenish brown
octopus came out and started for the
water, at which the man in question
who was barefooted, gave it a kick
Like flash the animal resented the
insult by throwing its eight sucker
lined arms about its opponent, claspine
him in an embrace that held his legs
together SO tightly that he fell headlone
on the sand, shouting for help and
fearing to touch the animal with his
hands to tear it off. He was released
only when one of the men inserted a
knife beneath the coils and severed the
snakelike arms.
To show the strength of a large one
taken at Kings island it was landed
in net, and after great difficulty Sc
cured by party of six men, who. BY
wrapping pieces of sacking around theil
hands to protect them from the suck
ers, each took an arm and walked
away but the octopus writhed like z
snake and actually pulled and hauled
them about at will, so they had to ex
ert no little force to prevent the ANNA
from fastening to them, which seemed
to be its intention.
PRODIGIOUS STRENGTH OF THE
OCTOPUS.
The strength of the octopus is re
markable. The writer has taken scores
of them with the spear, and has know
them to bring up twenty to twenty-fiv,
pounds of coral, clinging to it witt
their tentacles, when pulled in, an
: these were comparatively small ones
l the body being the size of ones CLOSED
; fist. 1t is easy to imagine what tn
: strength of a large one might be. TIL
octopus is found on almost all coast
; where rocky shores abound, but tn