THE DEVIL-FISH AND ITS RELATIVES. 345 



carbonic-acid gas, and that this gas, except in very small proportion, 

 destroys life in warm-blooded animals. It was the tree that drank in 

 the noxious vapor through its leaves, decomposed it, took of the carbon 

 to add to its stature, and to yield seed and fruit after its kind, while it 

 breathed the life-producing oxygen back into the air, and in this way 

 the atmosphere was purified for the use of man and beast. 



Thus in the economy and wonderful working of Nature not only 

 was this gas, that precluded life, removed, but it was stored up for the 

 future use of that same life that its removal made possible, so that coal, 

 besides giving light and warmth, and a thousand other material bless- 

 ings, was the prime cause of the very air we breathe. Surely it is, 

 and it has been, a wonderful and blessed boon to the earth and its pop- 

 ulation, and it is of no wonder that it has been given the name of the 

 most costly gem we know when it is called black " diamond." 



-♦♦V- 



THE DEYIL-FISII AND ITS EELATIYES.* 



Br W. E. DAMON. 



PERHAPS no better introduction to this chapter can be given than 

 to recall to the minds of our readers the terribly vivid description 

 of the devil-fish by that grand master of romance, Victor Hugo ; for, 

 though incorrect in several scientific details, the general description is 

 the best we have had, though Jules Verne's is almost as dramatic and 

 nearer to Nature. In " Les Travailleurs de la Mer " M. Hugo says : 

 " To believe in the existence of the devil-fish, one must have seen it. 

 Compared to it the ancient hydras were insignificant. Orpheus, Homer, 

 and Hesiod, imagined only the chimajra — Providence created the octo- 

 pus. If terror was the object of its creation, it is perfection. The devil- 

 fish has no muscular organization, no menacing cry, no breastplate, no 

 horn, no dart, no tail with which to hold or bruise, no cutting fins, or 

 wings with claws, no prickles, no sword, no electric discharge, no venom, 

 no talons, no beak (?), no teeth. It has no bones, no blood, no flesh. 

 It is soft and flabby, ... a skin with nothing inside of it. Its imder 

 surface is yellowish ; its upper earthy. Its dusty hue can neither be 

 imitated nor explained ; it might be called a beast made of ashes which 

 inhabits the water. Irritated, it becomes violet. It is a spider in form, 

 a chameleon in coloration. 



" Seized by this animal," he adds, " you enter into the beast ; the 

 hydra incorporates itself with the man ; the man is amalgamated with 

 the hydra. You become one. The tiger can only devour you ; the 

 devil-fish inhales you. He draws you to him, into him ; and, bound and 



' From " Ocean Wonders." in the press qf D. Appleton & Co. 



