The record-union., 1897-03-19
TIE DEVIL FISH.
An EnsliShman'S Personal ReminiS-
CenCeS.
The Kraken in OIden Times-Testi-
mony of rodern Whales-A
Fearful Fight.

In writing about the kraken or devil
fish, Frank T Bullen says, in GOOD
Words that he doesn't propose 10
warm up any sea serpent stories, an
cient or modern. While he holds most
firmly that the gigantic mollusk is the
"fors ct origo" of all true sea-serpent
stories it is with facts relating TO the
former that he has alone to deal. AS
might have been expected, he adds, all
stories of sea monsters have q strong
family likeness, showing pretty con-
clusively their common Derivation, Win
such differences as the locality ana
personality of the narrative must De
held accountable for. But among sea
folk. as among all people leading hVes
In close contact with the elemental
forces of nature, legends persist with
marvellous vitality, and SO the story
of the kraken is to be found wherever
men go down to the sea in ships, ana
do business in great waters.
Substantially the story is: That long
low-lying banks have been discovered
by vessels. which have moored thereto,
only to find the supposed land develop
ing wondrous peculiarties. Amid ire
mendous turmoil of seething waters,
arms innumerable, like a nest of mighty
serpents arose from the deep, followed
at last by horrible head, of bigness
and diabolical appearance unspeaka-
bly, appalling Fascinated by the ter
rible eyes that, large as shields, glared
upon them, the awe-stricken seamen
heheld some of the far-reaching tenta-
Giles. covered with multitudes of mouths,
hi Ia nj
searched her allow and aloft, culling the
trembling men from the rigging ike
ripe fruit and conveying them forth
With into an abysmal mouth. Where
they vanished forever.
Such a story, especially when en-
belliShed by professional story-teilers,
has, of course, met with well-merlteo
skepticism but sight has been largely
lost of the fact that from very carry
times much independent testimony mas
been borne to the existence Of mighty
molluscae in many waters, sufficiently
huge and horrific to have furnished a
substantial basis for any NUMBER OF
hair-raising yarns, and having myself
for some years been engaged in the
sperm whale fishery, all over the globe,
/ now venture to bear testimony to an
other eyewitness to the truth of many
kraken legends, however much they
may have been, and are now doubted.
SECRET THINGS OF THE OCEAN.
To eager students of marine natural
history, nothing can we'll be stranger
than the manner in which, with two or
three honorable exceptions, the sperm
whale fishers of the world have 'sinned
their mercies" To them as to no other
class of seafarers have been vouchsafed
rot glimpses merely, but consecutive
months and years of the closest 1ntl-
macy with the secret things of the
ocean. embracing almost the whole
navigable globe. And when, impressed
for time. they have leisurely entered
those slumbrous ATTITUDES so anxious
" avoided by the hurried, worried
merchantmen how utterly they have
neglected their marvellous opportunities
of observation of the wonders there re-
vealed. 1t may not be generally known
that during long-persisting Gains the
sea surface changes its character. From
limpid blue it becomes greasy and pale,
from that health-laden odor to which
the gratifed nostrils dilate. and the
satisfied lungs expand, there is grew
y
of stagnation and decaying things. such
as the genius of Coleridge depicted
when he sang:
The very deep did rot o. Christ!
That ever this should be;
Yea. Shiny things did crawl with legs
Upon the Shiny sea.
Strangest of ali the strange visitors
to the upper world at such times is
the gigantic squid, or cuttlefish. of all
the myriad species of moilusca this
monster may fairly claim chief place,
and neither in ancient or modern times
have any excited more interest than he.
Upon his aWe-inspiring and uncanny
bulk the ancients, gazing with child
like fear. have done their best to trans
nit their impressions to posterity.
Aristotle writes voluminously upon the
subject as he did about most things,
but his cuttles are such as are known
10 most of us. Pliny leaves on record
much concerning the Sepiadae which is
evidently accurate in the main. men
tioning especially Glib. *. caps. " and
XXX) one monster slain on the coast
OF Spain which was in the habit of
robbing the salt-fish warehouses. Pliny
caused the great head to be sent to
Iucullus. and states that II filed a
cask of fifteen amphorae. It's arms
were thirty feet long, so thick that a
man could hardly embrace them at
their bases. and provided with suckers,
or acetabula, as large as basins holding
four or five gallons.
The gigantic squid is, unlike most of
the cephalopoda. a decapod, not an oc-
topod, since il possesses. in addition TO
the eight branchiae with which all the
family are provided, two tentacula of
double their length, having suckers, or
acetabuia, only in a small cluster at
their ends This fact was noticed by
Athanasius kircher. who describes a
large animal seen in the Sicilian seas
which had ten rays, or branches. and
body equal in size to that of a whale
which. seeing how wide is the range in
size among whales, is certainly not
over-definite. Coming down to much
later days. we find Denys de Montfort
facile prineeps in his descriptions of the
kraken. Unfortunately. his reputa-
ton for truthfulness is but $3.50, and
he is reported to have expressed great
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