People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1897 — AN EIGHT TON MOLLUSK. [ARTICLE]

AN EIGHT TON MOLLUSK.

The Giant Octcpus Cast Up on Florida’# Shore Has Been Photographed. The huge mollusk ashore on the beach of Anastasia island continues to attract the attention of scientists. I)?. DeWitt Webb has received instructions to spin ■ :no expense in obtaining,h series of pho-. tographs of the carcass, and with th s end in view he engaged four heavy horses, a dozen men, amjwith three f,<: of tackle went to South Br ach for tho purpose of raising the hesjivy object fi ■ : i its bed in the Fund and placing it u. a board platform so that it couldd <■ photographed and examined on all sid When the party reached the molln-’', the tide was found to be favorable i r work, and after several hours of hd< tithe great mass was hauled from the sa i in which it was imbedded and pl. on a platform of boards. The men at work, who are in the habit of handling heavy weights, state that the can s weighs fully eight tons. What it weighed when alive must be imamnec. bi t must have b< - n f ront, for the i been ashore i- „uv t ..o n,<

if it i 3 true that it floated from the arc* tic regions it lost its tentacles and shell en route. The shape of that part of the mollusk that was imbedded in the sand is similar to that which was exposed from the time it came ashore, but another series of photographs will be taken, as a view of the entire mass can now be obtained since it has been placed on the platform. These photographs will be sent to the Smithsonian institution and to Yale college for the purpose of classification.—Florida Citizen.