Evening star., 1899-07-29
DEEP SEA MONSTERS.
Terrible Battle Between a Gigantic
Octopus and Sunfish.
I'M the San Francisco Call.

| From the San Francisco Call.
| Never before has it fell to my lot to wit
ness the terrible monster we encountered
| on the last passage from San Francisco
toward Nanaimo in the bark Willscott of
| Honolulu, says Capt. Thomas Peabody of
| the bark Wilscott.
| We knew that the octopus grew to an i'm
| mense size as Banks and Solander, who ac-
| companied Captain Cook in his first voyage
around the world, found the dead carcass
| of one floating on the water to the west
| ward of Cape Horn. 1t was supposed to be
| twenty by thirty feet, the body only; the
| tentacles We're hanging under water. 1t
was surrounded by myriads of birds, which
were feeding greedily on its remains.
Pliny also mentions a similar monster
| having eight arms thirty feet long and a
corresponding girth; and many other writ
| ers, too numerous to mention, have certi-
| fed to its actual existence.
| But l did not believe that anything SINH
| lar to the terrible devil fish described by
| Victor Hugo was really in existence until
| l had ocular demonstration OF the fact
| L will quote our log book in relation to
| the monster We saw: Saturday, May Is,
! latitude $3.50 north, longitude 136:iO 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 starboard tack, going five
knots per hour, but scarcely making d rip
| pie on the water.
AT 2:3o pm. my attention was called by
the quartermaster, Frank Bastast OF San
Diego, Cal, to terrible commotion in the
water about three points forward OF the lee
beam. Our first thought was that it must
be breakers in an uncaarted reef, but while
We We're watching the breaking of the wa
ter ceased. Then We could distinctly see
the outlines of two objects on the surface,
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 10 body-having no tan, but an
upper and lower fin, with which it propels
itself about in a very lazy fashion. 1t ap-
peared to be fully twelve feet in diameter
and judging from smaller ones we have
caught must have weighed 5000 pounds.
1t appeared TO be endeavoring to keep face
on to its adversary, 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 sta
tionary, regarding one another curiously
for fully five minutes, by which time we
had advanced sufficiently close to make an
accurate examination.
Its eyes were large, of greenish tint, and
somewhat protrudng; its mouth, however,
was not so very large, and it appeared to be
shaped like a parrots bill; its tentacles
were tapering and, like its body, of q gray
ISL COlOT, covered WIN spots. II appeared
to possess the chameleon-like power of
changing the color of these spots in a most
extraordinary manner fast as the eye
could detect the changes, no doubt indicat-
ing the high state of excitement under
which the creature was laboring at the
time.
Suddenly the octopus discharged huge
jet of dark-colored fluid full into the ewes
of the sunfish, and then rushing forward
with the rapidity of an arrow, il encircled
its prey with the long tentacles, and in an
other moment the victor and VanQuished
had disappeared below the surface.
In few moments more had sailed
right over the scene and found the water
was colored almost black for a space of
fully 200 feet in diameter, and we noticed
an odor slightly resembling iodine rising
white cotton, which was towing astern was
colored almost black, and it has not Yet as
sumed Its white freshness, although il has
toWed in the water fully 500 miles since the
above episode.
About twenty minutes after we had pass
ed over this spot saw the huge creature
again on the surface enjoying its meal in a
the unfortunate sunfish over and over and
biting off large mouthfuls with its cruel
looking beak.
l knew before that these huge octopods
and their relatives, the decapoos, We're not
altogether mythical, they have at the
United States National Museum in WASH
tngton papier mache cast of one of the
north shore of Trinity bay, Newfoundland
on the 22d day of September, 1877 The
total length of this specimen, including fem
tacleS, was only sixty feet, so il is quite
safe to infer that it had not become of age
when 1t was wrecked.