p. 11 | A REAL SEA MONSTER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 19, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 51.

A REAL SEA MONSTER.

THERE are monsters in the sea which would put to shame the sea-serpent as described by summer-resort correspondents or veracious and jolly sea-dogs. A papier-mache model of one of them hangs from the ceiling in the United States National Museum at Washington. This model was made from portions of one of the hideous things that was washed ashore from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, and is a mere baby, being but sixty feet long.

This genuine sea terror is known as the calamary, or giant squid. It has a soft, pulpy body, which attains a length of fifty feet, and various tentacles or arms, nearly twice as long. The entire carcass will weigh perhaps five tons. It is closely related to the snail family. It has a hard beak, much like the bill of a parrot, which it uses in tearing its prey to pieces, and eyes as large as dinner plates and of a shade of green.

These giant squids are quite common in the Indian Ocean, but are sometimes found in northern waters, especially off the coasts of Newfoundland and Norway. Their tentacles, which give them a reach of more than a hundred feet, are fitted with suckers on the under side, and when they take hold, they never let go. Travelers in the Indian Ocean have seen huge whales attacked by these monsters and dragged downward after one or more tentacles have been wrapped around the helpless whale's body.

When they are attacked, the giant squids eject a dark liquid from a pouch which they have, which turns the water for hundreds of feet an inky black. This enables them to escape their enemies. No large specimen has ever been taken alive, and comparatively little is known of their habits. Their flesh is so pulpy and jelly-like that it has been found impossible to lift them aboard a ship when killed, and only portions have been secured.—Selected.