The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-05-20

prehensiVe aquarium In the city I'M
der the direction OF the government"
remarked member Of the scientific
staff of the bureau of fisheries, "op-
ems UP a fascinating field, not only to
the scientist, but to the average men,
Der of the general public, who is by
no means adverse to thrills.
ooh, yes" continued the scientist,
there surely are some possibilities of
thrills at the spectacle of some Of
the monsters of the deep Some of
the creatures that inhabit the sea
seem veritable nightmare creations,
more horrifying and grotesque than
any emanations from the brains Of
the most imaginative artists.
| "You may see, in our aquarium ut
present, a specimen of the ordinary
so-called skate. 1t is not large, and
1t is due perhaps to this fact that
it does not, despite it's fiendishly ma
levolent eyes and weird shape and
movements, appall the spectator.
"But fancy this fish enlarged to the
size of an aeroplane! Such is the
giant ray, which is to be found along
our coasts from 80 degrees north lat
Iitude to about the same number OF
degrees south of the line. 1t goes by
the name of 'devilfish,' a name ap-
piled to other varieties of ocean mon
sters, and lies on the sea bottom, COW
ering square yards of coral sand. 1t
is one of the tigers of the sea, in
point of ferocity, and If attacked may
prove not only combative, but abso-
lutely dangerous to the occupants Of
a small boat. It is said to use its
mouth in the manner of shark, but
its most unpleasant weapon is the
barbed lance, which, like the skate,
1T projects rearward against its enc
miles, It is said that, in some OF the
South Sea islands, a revengeful ma
tive will stick the sleep blanket or
= mat of his enemy full of the small
barbed points of bone from the tall
of the skate The sleeper, once he
has the points in his flesh, will new
er be able to remove them, as they
sink deeper and deeper ultimately
causing very painful death. The
desirability of avoiding the similar
weapon of the devilfish, vastly mag
nified as it is, need scarcely be en-
larged upon"
Fishermen have averred that the
devilfish is able to thrust its Jagged
lance completely through mans
thigh. Owing to the action of the
hideous barbed spikes and also, 1t IS
said, to the poisonous nature of thu
wound. the latter is almost invariably
fatal. In the southern portion of the
Gulf of Mexico specimens of the giant
ray have been killed, the reported siz-
es of which have been well-nigh in
credible. The ray has two horns, one
= on each side of it's eyes, the latter
being green, hideous and cruel be-
,yond compare. A curious habit OF
this fish is to leap from the water to
an astonishing height and come down
with a thunderous flap of its broad
fat body, which can often be heard
for miles.
In a room in the Smithsonian Instl'
tuition building there is huge mod,
ell of an octopus, which occupies
quite a considerable portion of the eX'
pansive and lofty ceiling. To fancy
such a creature living would seem be-
You'd the limits of the credible, as
the specimens of this monster pre-
served in the institutions museum
I are very much smaller than the pa
pier mache model, the tentacles rep
resented by which spread to Length
of about fourteen feet. Yet that suci
a living horror as this gigantic devil
fish" might, and probably does, exist
is attested by numerous witness
es. There was cast up upon the Flor
ida coast, in the neighborhood OF 81
Augustine, in 1897, the remains of
dead octopus, which, though only
h portion of the living animal weighe,
no less than six tons, or, say, tWic
the weight of an average full-growl
y elephant 1t was estimated that tn
living animal must have possesse
arms seventy-two feet in Length
which means that the creature, whe
alive, was enabled to stretch a di:
lance of nearly $50 feet. The averag
individual jeers at the tales of tn
sea serpent, but the latter, grotesqu
and apparently incredible thong
they be, can scarcely exceed in gro
tesquerie the we'll attested existenc
of the arms of this octopus.
There are a number of varieties