The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-14
DEEP SEA MONSTERS.
Terrible Battle Between Gigantic
Octopus and a Sunfish.

~
Octopus and a Suntlsh.
Never before has it fallen to my 10
TO witness the terrible monster we en-
countered on the last passage from san
Francisco toward Nanaimo in the barf
Willscott of Honolulu. says Captain
Thomas Peabody, oe the bark VIII
scott.
We knew that the Octopus grew e
an immense size, as Banks and Soian-
der, who accompanied Captain COOK II
his first voyage around the world, tounc
the dead carcass of one floating in the
water to the westward of Cape Horn
1t was supposed to be twenty by thirty
feet, the body only; the tentacles were
hanging under water 1t was sur
rounded by miriads of birds, which were
feeding greeedily upon it's remains
Pliny also mentions a similar monster
having eight arms thirty feet long and
a corresponding girth; and many other
writers. too numerous to mention, have
certified to its actual existence,
But / did not believe that anything
similar to the terrible devil fish de-
serted by Victor Hugo was really in
existence until / had ocular demonstra-
ton of the fact.
| will quote our log book in relation
to the monster we cav: Saturday,
May 1S, latitude 1890 north, longitude
196:40 west. Light breeze from north by
east; dry, cloudy weather; smooth sea,
except for the usual slight undulating
swell from the northwest. Ship under
all sail, braced sharp upon the star
fx.O h.
but scarcely making a ripple ON the
water.
At 2:30 .. M. my attention was called
by the quartermaster, Frank Bastast,
of San Diego, Cal, to a terrible com
motion in the water about three points
forward of the lee beam. Our first
thought was that it must be breakers
in an uncharted reef, but while we were
watching the breaking of the water
ceased. Then we could distinctly see
the outlines Of two objects on the sur
face, one much larger than the other
We at once got our telescope to bear
on them and discovered the smaller of
the two was a very large sunfish, a
curiously shaped fish-all head and no
body-having no tail, but an upper and
lower fin. with which 1t propels itself
about in a very lazy fashion. 1t APP
peared to be fully twelve feet in diam
eter, and, judging from smaller ones we
have caught, must have weighed three
thousand pounds. 1t appeared to be
endeavoring to keep face on to its ad-
versary which turned out to be a huge
octopus, the length of whose body was
certainly forty feet and the breadth
about twenty-five feet, with eight ten
tacles.
We at once ordered the quartermaster
to keep the ship away four points so as
to approach the objects more closely,
and to our delight and surprise they
remained stationary, regarding each
other curiously for fully five minutes,
by which time we had advanced suf-
animation.
Its eyes were large of a greenish tint,
and somewhat protruding, it's mouth,
however, was not so very large and it
to be shaped like a parrots
bill; its tentaCles We're taDering and
like its body, Of a grayish color, COW
cred with spots. 1t appeared to possess
the chameleonlike power of changing
the color of these spots in most ex-
traordinary manner as fast as the eye
could detect the changes. no doubt in
the high state of excitement
under which the creature was laboring
at the time.