A MONSTOR OF THE DEEP.

Western Star, 9 October 1908, Page 3

A MONSTOR OF THE DEEP.

biggest sunfish ever KNOWN. The biggest sunfish -ever heard, -of in the world was hauled unto. I oil Jackison, Sydney, in Septenibei. The story of its capture is strange one. The steamer Fiona wgs a little more than forty miles ■*fr o in the Heads, inward bound, when a violent concussipn shook the vessel from stem to stern. Shortly afterwards the port; engines—the vessel has twin screws— pulled up short. Steam was at once shut off, the englues were slopped, and a boat was lowered to see what manner ,of thing had happened. Jammed, in the framework of the port propeller was a gigantic mass.that looked for all the world) like the. carcase of a huge elephant. It was not easy to discover what it was, and it was some before it was made out to be a fiS ßut it was no ordinary fell, this one. It was not wonderful that the engines wore stopped Jby the concussion of the propeller with its immense bulk. ,1„ There have been large suo&«* found from time to -than indie tooencal waters oi iunenux. wre pigmies compared with th . •R-rucndous patriarch of the seaTho people on the steamer did not 4aow L the time that the Fiona had distinguished herself by hooking tin largest ffsh-tlte shark family except-ed-that has ever been taken from the sea anywhere in till wca • that they <?•*««* **£ ,_ t timr the monster clear of the pro k ]i ers All efforts in thte direction iTcUer, proved T was too firmly limbed. Thw > ■ unlucky for the ship, but exUmn •fortunate in ether respects W it meant the ; cf a mai ine curiosity 'pto unique in . MW,.t it-s proper nasne, sam m. * Stead, “is mola mola, but it is frequently referred to in literatmc as vi-,, orthagostiscus. It is wide \ Smted in the temperate and trojucal seas. This specimen is the largest on record. The l«g known hitterto was caught oft the • American coast- I* Weighed « and was eight feet two inches long. This fish is ten feet two inches long, six feet deep in the body, thirteen feet four inches deep from fin tip to T.xi lip. Tfcte upper fin is four feet and the lower one. three feet * four indies. The small fin at the side is eighteen inches long. The eye is three and a-haif inches m diameter, and the month is only eight inches across. I should say that the weight of tlio fish is something over ■thirty cwt.