The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-07-27
.EV|L MONSTER
OF TIE DEEP
Strange Serpent Has Been
Caught in Southern Seas.
LIKE A GIANT WORM
Some Scientists Now Believe
There Is a Sea Serpent.
LIKE A GIANT WORM

way, is brought to a sudden stop by some
little happening that it makes US realize
with a sudden start how blindly we walk
on the edge Of mystery.
Such a happening was it THAI has been
brought about by three drunken negro
fishermen Of Bermuda-as mean instru-
ments as nature could pick out to teach
the world something new of her wonder
full ways and to give us a glimpse Of the
| unreveaied marvels Of creation.
Out Of the abyss Of the tropic ocean the
| three pulled the first true deep sea crea-
ture ever to be taken and kept alive. And
with that capture the men Of science
have been almost forced to accept the
| belief that somewhere in the deepest
depths of the deep seas there lives true
| sea serpent-the great eel-like form,
swimming with exceptional swiftness and
| OF unknown dimensions" as Drs. Bean
and Goode. Of the United States fish com
| mission put il in their official report IN
discussing the theory that somewhere IN
unknown chasms of the ocean theremay
exist such a monster as that of which
men have talked since the days Of Pliny.
This creature that has been dragged
from its black home Of eternal night to
lie gasping in glass tank TO be seen by
| tens of thousands-the first time human
eye ever has sen its kinds not great in
size. for it's extreme length when it ex-
! erts is entire and startling power Of ex-
| pansion is not more than six or possibly
seven feet. But its aspect is so thorough
ylthat of the pit, so Satanic, so gro
tesquely impossible that theichthyologists
who have studied it up TO this time have
become converts TO the belief in the sea
serpent. For men are convinced now
that there can be such things in the ma
rlne CULTS off ourd coasts, and If they can
exist without letting science with all its
| grapples and dredges and sounding wires
| and travis ever get a glimpse Of them
| there is ample reason for believing that
| vast creatures Of aspect still more fan
tastic and frightful swim far below the
surface, rising TO the sunlight only in
epochal periods to terrify the human
mites that see them, and to flee again as
terrified themselves by the binding light
OF day and the noises of the upper world.
The creature has been identified only
tentatively as yet as to species and ge-
MUS. Professor Spencer of the New York
| aquarium, TO whom it was sent, believes
that it is the same kind of form that was
seen dead on the surface of the Carib-
bean sea off the Cuban coast by Richard
nso in 1874, during the famous exploring
voyage of the Erebus and Terror. If this
conjecture is correct, as il probably is,
for Professor Spencer is an observer Of
rare experience, the fish is entitled TO the
name Channomureana Vittata. That
classification puts it into the strange Mo-
ray family, the huge and ferocious eel
like fish that have been infamous since
the days Of ancient Rome, when certain
of the species were kept in ponds and fed
with living men by their owners, who
thought that their flesh became the more
delicious from human diet.
No man who saw this fish wondered at
the terror that nearly drove the negroes
who caught it out OF their boat when
they saw what it was that they had
hooked. Finless, wrinkled, gulping cease
lesly with baggy, ophidian throat, it
lies, a bloated, venomously evil thing.
turning its weird head in reptilian mo-
tons Tiny black beads ofeyes. scarcely
50 large as pin heads, glimmer out Of its
dark head, set so near the tip OF it's jaws
I
one would not dream that they could be
anything except nostrils.
The head has a shape quite indescriba-
bic. It is as formless as a mass that has
Strengthened out roughly andcarelesly.
Not that There is much head TO it, Most
OF it is taken up with cape. The observer
gets no opportunity to overlook that. For
the fish has habit OF opening its jaws
I ali
Those gaping jaws extended far back
into the very body Of the thing, apparent
ly Never creature known 10 man has
jaws so over huge.
Where its gills should be. the observers
failed to ind any. But after a few min
utes Of close watching they saw a little
swelling work up and down like a slip
pery knot or muscle under the slimp skin.
And then suddenly a tube peered out.
protruded and slipped back. Continued
observation showed that the tube was a
true siphon, and that it takes the place
Of gnls in this deep sea thing.
does not swim. II writhes. At times
il stretches Itself like a worm Till its
high ridged body is quite thin and enor-
mously elongated. Again IL shrtnSs and
comprises its great form until. with q
hundred wrinkled folds over 1t, * lies
shrunken and even more evil in its vague
mass than it IS when it lies extended.
with its head raised at strange angles
with the body. pering wlckedly al every
thing within its ken
Shrunken and wriulSled. Il looks ike a
puff adder-eQualy thick-set. with the
reptile head. Expanded 10 fur leugth. rs
head seems far greater than It's body. and
then the resemblance 20 the Veaomous
serpents Is complete
Now and then II raises itself IN the va
ter ana holds Itself upright. resting only
en- its tail Thenit IS the cobra attitude
and expression.
These are not the oaly serpentine char
scteristics os the FISH In is ahsoiute
lack q fms II approaches TIE ciass O.
reptiles 50 closely in appearance aEc
suild that one IS inclined not 20 sco1 At
the many and various acccauts 81 sea
monsters. al agreeing fl describing tEsenl
, as snakes This thing. r. every respect
is far more snake than fish
There Is NJ doubt that II IS true deel
sea forrn. u a kind lhas rarely ventures
from the vsst depths. whore lt makes rs
horae amous Unknown forms thar prcba-
: bly, are stiu more straass. more terrible
and more Incredibly uisssapz7 than e. "a
H. Where II vas caught shere IS high
.edge of coral and limestone rlsiag shee-
out OF ohasn lea5 feet deep 10 douo'
The Chznnosuareana vrstEed its way up
ward 70 The top q the ledge more , = a.
) c.5eat than design. for rarely 10 she Gsh