The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-06
DEVIL FISH OF THE SEA.
Like Satan, Not So Black as He Is
Painted.
From the San Francisco Call.

People are still talking about the octo-
pus which drifted ashore at Tillamook.
The most absurd and preposterous stories
are current about its appearance, and as
no one cared to save it it hoated to sea
on the next tide after it was stranded,
and they cannot now be disproved. There
is no doubt that it was a well-developed
specimen of the cepha iopod molllusk
known in Northern Europe as the l1raken,
to Hercules as the Lernean Hydra, to Vic
tor Hugo as the pieuvre or devil-fsh, and
to people in general as the octopus vul-
garis. 1t has often been caught on the
coast of Vancouver Island.
1t had a small body about as large as a
good-sized football, and eight arms four
on each side. These are said by ignorant
| observers to have been furnished with
| Jaws and teeth; in fact, they were tooth
| less, but each arm had a row of suckers.
near a hundred in number, supple as
| leather, tough as stee,, cold as night.
| winch could fasten themselves so tena-
| clously TO an object that the arm might
| be torn off before they detached their
| hold. Several hundred such moIlusks
| nave been caught in the waters of this
coast; but no case has ever been reported
in which they attacked a swimmer or even
| a corpse.
| In Victor Hugo's story, "The Toiers of
the Sea" elliott thrust his arm into a
| creVlce in the rocks and suddenly felt
hlmselt seized Something slender rough
| adhesive, chilling, and living was twisting
| itself in the gloom round his naked arm
| After desperate struggle he succeeded
| IN cutting himself free with his knife. and
| Killing the animal. In describing the
| modus operandi of the devil-fish in de-
Vouring man M. Hugo says: you enter
INTO the beast; the hydra Incorporates
| with the man; the man is amalgamated
with the hydra You become one The
| tiger can only devour you; the devil-fsh
! lnhales you. He draws you into him
bound and helpless, you find yourself
slowly emDtied into the frghtful sac,
which IS a monster. To be eaten alive is
more than terrible; to be drunk alive is
! inexpressible"
In this thrilling description NJ Hugo
gives the reign toshis imagna ton. as is
his wont. The devil-fish does not imbibe
| his victims by suction, but tears them in
pieces with its powerful beak and devours
| them bit by bit. 1t could no more swallow
man than the whale swallowed Jonah.
for it's whole body is half the size Of a
mans head.
But there is no question Of the power
of the octopus to drown man by holding
him under water with his tentacles John
| *. Ward, in his book on British Column
bia, speaks of one whose arms were five
feet long and as thick as a mans wrist
1t was almost impossible to detach his
hold from rock. But the octopus does
not feed on human flesh. It's favorite
food is crabs.
When it gets a crab in corner it en-
circles him with its arms and holds him
fast; then it drives it's powerful beaz
through the creatures shell and picks
out the meat. In the Mediterranean the
skulls and bones of drowned men have
| hpn IN, h. rri,s u
are known to be inhabited by devil-fish.
and hence they have been supposed to
be man-eaters. But the corpses had prob
ably been eaten by crabs, which had fall
en- victims TO the man-caters after they
had fattened on human flesh
AS with some other crustacaca. the
limbs or arms of the octopus reproduce
themselves when they arc severed from
the body. Among the ancients it was be-
lieved that when driven to desperation
by hunger the octopus will eat its own
arms, but there seems to be no truth i'm
the theory. When an octopus swims. its
arms drag behind the body like a tail so
that the animal resembles a cat O. nine
tails; creatures which feed on it, like the
whale and the conger eel, falling to over
take it, content themselves with biting
off one or more of the tails which Tho
mollusk bears with philosophy, knowing
that the loss can be readily repaired one
of the most curious revelations of prc-
historic animal life is the discovery of
parts of the arms of the octopus in the
caprolytes of the ichthyosaurus. In the
| aquarium at HaVre, in France when
business is dull. the curator advertises a
duel between an octopus and a party of
conger cells.
The octopus at first endeavors TO escape
by ejectng the dark fluid, which for a
time renders it invisible. As the water
clears an eel dashes upon the foe and
I eqfyaa 40 nj Ia.
away it whirs round with rapidity until
the limb is wrenched from the body This
performance is repeated until every limb
is torn off in turn ana nothing is lett
of the creature but the round ball which
contains its eyes. mouth and internal or
gans. and il dies from inability to hunt
its prey.
The octopus IS eaten on the shores OF
the Mediterranean. and fishermen make
a living by spearing it for market. Among
the old Greeks il was esteemed a choice
luxury. Athcneus, i'm his "Dcipnoso-
phists." quotes a fragment OF tine poet
Machon on the subject.
They say PhiloXnus, the ancient poet
OF dithyramblcs. was so wonderfully att
tached to fish that once at Syracuse he
bought a polypus two cubits long. then
| cleaned 1t ana then ate 10 up himself. all
but the head, and afiorward fen sics.
seized with a sharp attack OF indigestion.
Then some doctor came TO see him. ,-ho
saw that he was greatly out of order.
| III" said the doctor. YOU have amy BUSH
| ness not well arranged. do not delay to
settle It, for YOU will die before six hours
are over" PhiloNcnus replied IAN my
affairs. O doctor. are well ended and arr
ranged long, long ago, but now since
deadly fate calls me away who cannot De
disobeyed that / may go below with AN
my goods bring me the rclics of that
polypus."
That there exist Ia the sea gigantic
specimens of the polypus, which have
been named lndlnerenly euulda. culNe-