The Opelousas courier., 1902-06-14
THE CURIOSITY OF A GIANT SQUID.
A TALE OF A DEEP-SEA DIVER.
BIZ ARTHUR Z. MCFARLAND.

some OIL MS 9lQ nGlNetS. AouB duu
corrupting acquaintance with salt wa
ter had LETT the tinnedNoVer copper
bulbs a rusty, greenish gray.
@RUhy don't { keep them polished
ups" hA md Because they're a great
deal ber5er the way they are. A shiny
new helmet Is one eternal nuisance;
yor never get any peace till it's coated
ova%. When I'm wearing one. al
ways feel as If my head was a r OF
trolling spoon; anyhow, most fish re-
gard it that way. And must say they
do certainly seem 10 be trying thel
level best to be caught.
81 often think that with the ma
jority of seabeasts life must be one
long struggle between a natural wari-
ness and a more than natural curlos-
ity. They've all been brought up to
give a wide ofing to things they, don't
understand; but it's bred In their
bone to want to see and keep up with
everything that's new. And when it's
something that's got a glitter or polish
to it, all that their parents and guar
dams have taught them from the be-
ginning of time isn't going to hold
them back.
"And no one has such opportunities
to find that out as the diver. At first,
when you're being lowered, there's
nothing but a flicker of tails disap-
pearing in every direction; but after
a while, and very soon if you're wear
ing a new h%eadpiece, you begin to
make out big pairs Of google eyes
staring at you from the under-sea
twilight, and they gradually move IN
closer and closer. In a few minutes
probably they'll be making little darts
at your fingers and swishing their tails
across your face.
"And yet in some cases they may
not be at all hesltating about introduc-
ing themselves. Down in the West
Indies there's a fish of the forward
sort. That's the BOBBY. Did you eVer
see a skate when a fishman's tied a
cord around his neck, bent his silly
face forward, and set him up on a
table to keep things gay and humor-
Gus in the market? Well, a BOBBY
looks something like that.
But with all his amazing ugliness,
it isn't the booby's looks so much as
his overwhelming suddenness that
makes him unpopular with deep
sea men. A diver goes down, and along
with the other fish the BOBBY hears
of it. But is he shy and timid about
| coming forward? The minute he hears
of a miraculous stranger in his midst,
my, but he does more than want to
know!' He's not even content TO
wait for the extrys,' as you might
say; he's got to rush straight down
town to see the bulletins!
"sThe first thing the unsuspecting
| diver knows, he's hit plump in the
| forward face-plate; and between his
| being Jared like a ship in a bowen
| collision, and his being given the firm
belief that he's had a visit from the
very old grinning demon of the under
sea himself, he's ready to put for
| the surface like a s~tampeded derrick
hoist. and do his recovering slow n
at leisure. He's lucky If the BOBBY
hasn't tried the thickness of both his
| %side-plates, too, before he's safe owe
the gunwale!
There's another sea beast that has
his own peculiar curiosity, and that's
the giant squid; but there's nothing
SO very humorous about their little
prying inquisitiveness. Once in the
| Mediterranean one gave me a half
hour which I thought would leave me
| gray-headed. Just how near 1t was to
being my last dive I'll never know.
"It happened in the end of the sum-
mer, when I'd been on that job neal
Shanghai, and / was coming home by
way of Suez when | got a wire at
Port Said from headquarters direct
ing me to take my gear and side
track myself direct to Palermo, Sicily.
When / got there-and l didn't lose
any time making connections found
that a badly moored liner had pinched
a big lighter between herself and the
mole-the long stone wharf and break
water the Palermese are SO proud Of
ana. smashing it abeam, had sent it
to the bottom. 1t was a government
lighter, and its cargo was an unusually
valuable one-Would u $4,000 or
s50, 900 in our money-and I was to do
what I could toward hosting a good
fat salvage out Of it.
"It was simple, easy work. There
were two or three hundred medium
sized cases to derrick up, and for me it
wasn't much more than snap-to the
chain-hooks and give the word to haul
away.
"In fact, there was only n thing
which kept the job from being exactly
the kind I like; / couldn't seem to
make good tenders Of the Italian sea,
men they'd given me to work with,
They would pump steadily enough,
but had no head at all for signal TAX
ing; and before long I was practically
regulating my air supply, and timing
my descents for myself.
II never got too little wind, and
when l got too much l simply opened
a wristband and fiabbied out in nc
time. Then, too, / had a loaded ca,
BILE ladder dropped from the side Of
the mole to the deck of the lighter
and I climbed up and down that with
out any useless telegraphing. After
the first week | told them not to bottle
looking for any signals but those te
let down and haul up the hoistine
tackle.
For all the italians were stupit
about a diving hose and line they