Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 236, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1910 — ODD FISH FROM SEA DEPTHS [ARTICLE]

ODD FISH FROM SEA DEPTHS

Brought to the Surface by Repairing Government Cables Along the Pacific Coast. Seattle, Wash.—-Strange monsters the like of which have seldom been seen by man were dragged from a depth of 8,500 feet by the crew of the cable ship Burnside when they repaired the Alaska cable oft Mount St. Elias last month. The Burnside is moored at its buoy In Elliott bay after two months of repairing and relaying the cables of the United States army and signal corps system. On board were a score of huge flasks filled with alcohol. In them floated strange shapes which it was hard to believe were once living creatures. Balls of red hair which looked like tousled human heads proved upon dissection to be a strange kind of deep water crab. Flesh colored round masses were found clinging to the cable by minute tentacles. One creature Is shaped like the diablo toy, narrow in the middle with big concave white disks at either end by which it catches bold of any object. The sailors on board the Burnside have named it the'spool, t Anothei strange marine” creature is shaped like an octopus but has at dozen tentacles instead of eight. Many octopuses were found clinging to the cable, but they "were thought too common to preserve. Whole sections of the cable pulled up for inspection were found covered several feet deep with strange plants and animal life. Seaweed, black instead of green, sponges and sea urchins predominated. Probably the strangest creature found on the cable was a flesh colored fish not more than four feet long which was found enveloped in the tentacles of a young octopus. When brought, to the surface its body was swollen like a balloon. Dr. J. E. Maloney, the ship’s surgeon, who examined it, said he believed the fish was choked by the bold of the octopus. The section of the cable upon which all this strange life was found had been down ten years at a depth of a mile and a half. The specimens which have been preserved and which are now on board the Burnside are to be handed over to the Smithsonian institution for scientific study.