Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-01-25
AN OCTOPUS DlfIES.
The Sea Monster Observed In the Act of
Catching and Eating Its Dinner.

Catching and Eating Its Dinner.
Never before has it fallen to my lot
to see as terrible monster as the oc-
topus we encountered on the last pas
sage from San Francisco toward Nan
aimo in the bark Willscott, of Homo
lulu, writes a correspondent of the
San Francisco Call.
We knew that the octopus grew to
an immense size, as Banks and Solan-
der, who accompanied Captain Cook
in his first voyage around the world,
found the dead carcass of one floating
on 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 surrounded by myriads OF
birds, which were feeding greedily on
it's remains. Pliny also mentions q
similar monster having eight arms,
thirty feet long, and corresponding
girth; and many other writer's. too
numerous to mention, have certified
to its actual existence. But I did not
believe that anything similar to the
terrible "devil fish" described by
Victor Hugo was really in existence
until I had ocular demonstration of
the fact on this passage.
1 will now quote our log book in
relation to the monster we saw:
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 ripple on the water.
At 2.30 p. m. my attention was called
by the Quartermaster, Frank Bastas,
of San Diego, CAL, to terrible COM
motion in the water about three points
forward of the lee beam.
Its eyes were large, of greenish
tint, and somewhat protruding; its
mouth, however, was not so very
large, and it appeared to be shaped
like parrots bill; its tentacles were
tapering, and, like its body, of gray
ish color, covered with spots. 1t ap-
peared to possess the chameleon like
power of changing the color of these
spots in most extraordinary manner
as fast as the eye could detect the
changes; they varied from very rich
crimson to dark, dull brown, these
changes, no doubt, indicating the
high state of excitement under which
the creature was at the time.
Suddenly the octopus discharged a
huge jet of dark-colored fluid full
into the eyes of the sunfsh, and then
rushing forward with the rapidity of
an arrow it encircled its prey with the
long tentacle, and in another moment
the victor and the vanquished had dis
appeared below the surface of the
water.
In few moments more we had
sailed right over the scene and found
the water was colored almost black
for space fully 200 feet in diameter,
and we noticed.,an odor slightly re-
sembling iodine rising from the water;
our patent log line of snow white cot
ton, which was towing astern, was
colored almost black, and it has not
yet assumed its white freshness, al
though it has towed in the water
fully 800 miles since the above epi-
sode.
About twenty minutes after we had
passed over this spot we saw the
huge creature again on the surface,
enjoying its meal in very leisurely
manner, rolling the body of the un-
fortunate sunfsh over and over and
biting off large mouthfuls with its
cruel looking beak.
1 knew before that these huge octo-
pods and their relatives, the decapods,
were not altogether mythical, as they
have at the United States National
Museum in Washington a papier
nache cast of one of the later which
was found stranded on the north
shore of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland,
on the 22d day of September, 1877.
The total length of this specimen, in.
Guiding tentacles, was only sixty feet,
so it is quite safe to infer that it had
not become of age when it was
wrecked.