Caught By A Starfish

"I was once a divcr - not a wreeker, but a pearl diver - and hard business it was," recently obgerréd tlio captain of a Spanisb brig to a reporter of tho California Times. "We worked off the Mcxican and Panama coaste, principally on the Pacific side. Somctimes we worked alone, but generally on shares, and somethnes for pay. We went o the grounds in small sailing vessels, then we took to the small boats and covered aa muoh ground as possible. Each man liad a basket, a weignt, aml a knife. For sharks? Yes, but it is a poor defense, for it is almost impossible to swing the arm with any forcé imder water. The best weapon is a short spear. When you reach the groimd you strip, put your feet in a big sinker, take the basket that has a rope for hoisting, drop over, and soon find yourself at the bottom. Then your business is to knock off as many oysters as you can, and pile them into the basket beiore you lose your wind. It is a terrible strain, bul ï eould stand it in those davs for six minutes, and I have knovvn somo men wlio eould stay down ten; but it is death in the long' run. If the ground is well stpcked, you can get 20 or more shells, but it is all luek. When the basket is full it is hauled up, and after yon come up for your wind, down you go'again, the suiker being hauled up with a smal] cord for that purpose. It was on one of these trips that I ran afoul of the animal that gave me a ing hght. You wili smilc when 1 say ir was only a star fish, but that it really was. I went down CO fcet with a rush, and, landing on the edge of a big branch of coral, swung off into a sort of basin. The basket went altead of me, and as I swung off to reach the bottom, something seemed to spring up all around me, and I was in the arms of somc kind of i monster that coiled about my body, arms, andlegs. I tried to scream, forgctting that I was in the water, and lost my wind. Il was just as if the plant had sprouted under me, and then tbxew its vines and tendrils about me. ïhere were thousands of them, coiling and writhing, and I thought I had landed in a nest of seasnakes. I gave the signal as soon as I could, and made a break upward, part of the creatures clinging to me, while the rest, I could see, was dropping to pieces. They hauled me into the boat when I reaehed the snrface, and pulled the main part of the animal from me. It was oval, about three feet aeross, and the iive arms seemed to divide into thousands of otliere. I probably landed on top of tliat one, which at that time was the largest I had ever seen. I afterward saw the body of one that was washed ashore on the isthmus that must have had a spread of 35 feet.Tb.eir power of grasping is eensiderale, but touch them in a certain way and they throw off theïr arms in a regular shower, and soon reduced to an oval body." _