COMBAT WITH A SEA-DEVIL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 79, 2 April 1878, Page 4

COMBAT WITH A SEA-DEVIL

A startling ad?enture with a " devil fish " is related by the Belfast correspondent.of ihe Warrn»mbool Standard, as follows: — "Mr Smale, (he diver engaged at the Mdyna river in removing the reef, bad fired ofi a charge of dynamite, aad was engaged in rolling over a large stone whea he saw something which he thought was a piece of clean looking kelp moving about in front of where he waß working. In a few seconds this olject came in contact with the divers arm, about which it quickly coiled partly holding Lira. Immediately Mr Sraale touched what was coiled around bis arm he became aware of his position, and tried to extricate himself, but found it a far more difficult job than he anticipated. Catching hold of ihe part hanging from his arm he walked along the bottom towards the end of it, when he was firmly held by the feelers of a large octopus, Mr iSmale tried to pull the fish from off its bold of the rocks, but without effect for some little time. At last the fiah loosened itself from the stones, and quickly transferred its feelers, or arms, around the diver's legs and body. In this position Mr Sraale thought the best thing for him to do was to get upon deck as soon as possible, and he quickly made tracks for the ladder, which reaches from the deck of the pant to the bottom of the river. The diver was certainly a curious looking object when he came up. The huge ugly-lookiug thing appeared to be entangled all over him, holding him in a firm embrace. However, Mr Smale's

fellow-workmen were not long in freeing him from the unfriendly hug of his submarine companion. The body portion of the octopus was only about the size of a soup-plate, with eyes in its head like those ot a sheep, but it possessed nine arms, each about four feet in length, at the butt as thick as n man's wrist, tapering off at the end to as fine a point as that of a penknife. Thus it could spread over an area of nine feet in diameter. All the way along the underneath part of each feeler are suckers every quarter of an inch, giving it immense power. Mr ; Smale declares that, it was powerful enough to keep three men under water.