Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-23
and Inspires Clever Maneuvers

If the shark ia an ever-present
menace to the undersea painter, the
big octopus is a far worse danger. /
have had several uncomfortable ex.
periences with these huge squids, and
! am convinced that they attain a
size. at least in the depths of the sea,
much greater than any yet recorded
One adventure. which came near
costing me not only my diving-beIl but
my life. happened to me off the
Lower California coast at particu-
larly wild part of that lonely shore
line. had Travelled I'm motor truck,
hauling the diving hell with me. down
southwark from San Diego. Calf, to
a point below the marvelously besutt-
full Ray of Ensenada de Todos Santos.
Two rather intelligent Mexican boys
were with me. serving as mozos.
Establishing our camp on a high
mesa ending in cliffs that dropped
some 30 feet into the sea. we rugged
up and anchored n windlass short
distance back and the boys lowered me
down and under the water to depth
Of about - feet below the surface,
where q wide ledge ran out from the
base of the cliffs for a distance of
some is or 90 feet before II dropped
off into great depths Just how deep
the ocean was there came very near
finding out through personal expert
enCe.
When my diving hell studio had
come to the rest on this ledge, |
signaled to have it swung round until
one window faced the cliff and the
other two looked TO right and left along
it's base | got the mozoS to swing
my studio" we'll out on the ledge
SO that the seward side OF the diving
bell was not more than 2 or 3 feet
from the rim of the rock. Thus
had a good view for a considerable
distance UP the cliff and along its
base i'm both directions.
found myself staring at wall Of
rock literally honeycombed with caves
Most of these Caverns were small,
with entrances not more than / or >
feet in diameter, but Just in front Of
me was a bigger cave with an open
ing about feet in height and some
10 feet wide. The face of the cliff
above this cavern was 0vergrown with
seaweed of various kinds, making a
beautiful background for the many
colored fishes which swan between
my window and the rocky wall.
My curiosity should have been
aroused BY the fact that there was
little or no seaweed growing round
the edge of the lower cavern. but for
some reason l overlooked this fact.
and sat calmly down to my work, with
no thought but to record on canvas
the beauties of this bit of submarine
scenery.
X X
7 HAD been painting for perhaps
half an hour when the light from
my window became first dim and then
vanished altogether. l looked up in
surprise-to see what appeared to he
a row of huge sea anemones. each ) or
s inches across. stuck close to the
glass, completely shutting out all
light. Fortunately, the iilumina ton
through the other two windows en-
abled me to see plainly enough 10 de-
termine at once that these apparent
"anemones" were i'm reality suckers
on one of the tentaeles of a huge
octopus which was now wrapping
itself not only along one side but com
pletely around my diving bell. ! could
see the Notwithstanding suckers
tightening against the glass. and had
hardly recovered from my surprise
when the light of the window on my
right was blotted out by a similar
mass.
Annoyed because OF the delaS 10 my
work, but feeling confident that no oc-
topus could seriously interfere with
my diving hell at SO shallow a depth
turned on the fiashlight and began
TO study the workings of these pc
culiar pneumatic valves with which
the tentacles of the devil-hsh are
equipped While / was doing this,
another arm, or. perhaps, the same
one, dropped across the third window.
Save for the fashlight. the interior