Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-05
WAYS OF THE DEVILFISH.
A Fourteen-Foof Octopus From Pnget
Sound Furnishes the Text.
From the st. Louis Globe d. inocrat

From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
The largest devilfsh caught in many
years in Puget sound was captured this
week by rock cod fishermen at the Mar
rows, near Tacoma. The monster meas
ures fourteen feet from tip to tip having
eight arms over six feet long and a body
two feet in diameter. The rock cod are
caught in water at least 300 feet deep. and
it is in depths like this that the ievilfsh is
usually found.
ROCK cod fishermen use set lines, to which
are attached several hundred hooks, fast
ened three inches apart, and haited with
herring. The devilfish sometimes attach
themselves to the bait or the cod or salmon
caught on the hooks. If the deyflGsh is
above the bottom, or If the bottom be sandy
or gfaVely, he can be raised TO the sur
face when the hooks are pulled up If the
bottom is rocky the devilfsh simply fastens
himself to the rocks and allows himself TO
be cut to pieces by the hooks before he
VIII release his tentacles and come UP Il
frequently happens that they are torn apart
in this manner. When the fishermen raise
one to the surface great care must be taken
that he does not grab the bottom of the
boat, in which event he might overturn a
small BOAT, or, to get rid Of him. the boat
must be taken ashore and overturned The
suckers of the devifish are then released
from the boat by the deXterous use of a
large spade, which is showed beneath them.
tightly to the boat as to form a vacuum.
and their release is attended by loud re-
ports like those of a rife. This is the way
the fishermen released the octopus recently
caught.
The wonderful sucking power of the dew
ilfish is better understood when it is real
lied that each of the eight tentacles or
arms is covered with 300 or more suckers
ranging in size from three inches in diam
eter near the mouth to the size of a lead
pencil point near the ends. Once caught
in the powerful grasp of one of these ten
tacles, nothing, whether il be fish or human
being, is ever released, unless the tentacles
themselves be cut in two and the octopus
siashed to pieces. Even four or five Of the
eight arms can be cut off and the monster
will still live and thrive. Two summers
ago an old gentleman and his two daugh-
tiers were out boating on the Narrows when
an ugly devilfish attacked the boat and at
tempted to overturn it, He was vigorously
pounded with the oars, which seemed to
increase his fury. He threw two of his
arms into the boat, and was winding one
of them around the foot of one of the
young ladies when she withdrew just in the
nick of time. Had the monster caught her
she would have been pulled out of the boat
in n iiffy.
A number of years ago a squaw was kill
ed by a devilfsh near one of the lower
sound Indian reservations. She was out
bathing and deviifish had several of his
arms securely fastened to some large rocks
With the others he caught the unsuspectine
squaw. The tide came in while she was
struggling for life and she was drowned.
Two days later her body was found,
still in the clutches of the octopus Had
she possessed a knife she could have slash
ed 1t to pieces and ESCAPED.
The devilfish is of a light pink flesh color
and has two bright green eyes. Its body
is shaped like a spider, the eight tentacles
radiating out from the head. The mouth is
on the under side, exactly in the center of
the radiating arms. Inside the mouth is a
beak or bill, shaped exactly like a parrots.