{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_72133/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_72133","id":"gutenberg_72133","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72133","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science - Biology","Cephalopoda","Cuttlefish","Octopuses","Squids"],"text":"TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.\n\n  Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been\n  placed at the end of the book.\n\n  The tables in this book are best viewed using a monospace font.\n\n  Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.\n\n\n\n\n                            THE OCTOPUS;\n\n                                 OR,\n\n                   THE \u201cDEVIL-FISH\u201d OF FICTION AND\n                              OF FACT.\n\n\n                     [Illustration: THE OCTOPUS\n\n                       (_Octopus vulgaris._)]\n\n\n\n\n                          _AQUARIUM NOTES._\n\n                             THE OCTOPUS;\n\n                                 OR,\n\n               THE \u201cDEVIL-FISH\u201d OF FICTION AND OF FACT.\n\n                            BY HENRY LEE,\n\n                     F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S., &c.,\n\n                 NATURALIST Of THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM.\n\n                         WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n                               LONDON:\n\n                  CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.\n\n                                1875.\n\n\n\n\n                               LONDON:\n\n            BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.\n\n\n\n\n                     I Dedicate this little Book\n\n                       TO MY VENERABLE FRIEND,\n\n                      DR. JAMES SCOTT BOWERBANK,\n\n                             F.R.S., &c.,\n\n            ONE OF THE ORIGINATORS OF THE WATER VIVARIUM;\n\n         TO WHOSE VALUABLE ADVICE AND CHEERING ENCOURAGEMENT\n        I, LIKE MANY OTHERS, AM INDEBTED FOR THE CONFIRMATION\n                 AND INCREASE OF AN EARLY LOVE OF THE\n                      STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY.\n\n                                                        H. L.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nWhen I accepted the position of Naturalist of the Brighton Aquarium,\nafter the death of my valued friend John Keast Lord, it became my\npleasant duty to watch and record events and circumstances connected\nwith the habits and development of the denizens of the tanks.\n\nMy notes of observations have, from time to time, appeared in the\nNatural History columns of _Land and Water_, and have been honoured\nby frequent quotation in the _Times_ and other newspapers. Grateful\nfor the kind reception accorded to them in their original form, I\nre-publish them with considerable additions. They have, in fact,\nbeen almost entirely re-written. I venture to hope that they may be\ninteresting to the public, and of some little value to science.\n\nI have always endeavoured to observe carefully, to describe\nfaithfully, to record facts rather than to propound theories, and to\nrelate what I have seen and learned in language comprehensible by\nall.\n\nWith excellent opportunities of studying the habits and movements\nof living cephalopods, and with dead specimens of these animals on\nthe table before me, I have followed, scalpel in hand, the minute\ndescription of their anatomy given by Professor Owen, in his masterly\ntreatise in the \u201cCyclop\u00e6dia of Anatomy,\u201d and by De Ferussac and\nD\u2019Orbigny in their splendid monograph on the same subject; the two\ngreat sources from which almost all, if not all, subsequent writers\nhave drawn much of their information. Quotations from other authors\nwill be found duly noted.\n\nI am indebted to my friend Mr. Thomas Davidson, F.R.S., &c., for the\nbeautiful portrait of the Octopus, which forms the frontispiece to\nthis volume; to Mrs. Edward Harris for the drawing of its eggs (fig.\n6); to Miss Gertrude Woodward for that of its tongue (fig. 4); and to\nMessrs. West and Co., and Mr. Charles A. Ferrier, for the care they\nhave respectively bestowed on the lithographing and engraving of the\nillustrations.\n\n                                                            HENRY LEE.\n\n  BRIGHTON AQUARIUM,\n      _August, 1875_.\n\n\n\n\n      CONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                  PAGE\n  INTRODUCTION                                                    xiii\n\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  THE OCTOPUS AND ITS RELATIVES                                      1\n\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  OCTOPODS I HAVE KNOWN                                              7\n\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n\n  \u201cTHE TOILERS OF THE SEA\u201d                                          12\n\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n\n  THE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND OF FACT                             19\n\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  THE OCTOPUS OUT OF WATER                                          37\n\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n\n  NEW LIMBS FOR OLD ONES                                            49\n\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n\n  SPAWNING OF THE OCTOPUS                                           56\n\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n\n  CUTTLES AND SQUIDS                                                67\n\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n\n  ECONOMIC VALUE OF CUTTLE-FISHES                                   83\n\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n\n  GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISHES                                            99\n\n\n\n\n      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n  FIG.                                                            PAGE\n     THE OCTOPUS (_Octopus vulgaris_)                  _Frontispiece_.\n\n  1. THE PAPER NAUTILUS (_Argonauta Argo_)                           5\n\n  2. SUCKER OF THE OCTOPUS                                          21\n\n  3. MANDIBLES OF THE OCTOPUS                                       25\n\n  4. TONGUE OF THE OCTOPUS                                          26\n\n  5. THE OCTOPUS SWIMMING                                           28\n\n  6. EGGS OF THE OCTOPUS                                            58\n\n  7. THE COMMON CUTTLE-FISH (_Sepia officinalis_)                   67\n\n  8. SEPIOLA RONDELETII                                             70\n\n  9. THE COMMON SQUID (_Loligo vulgaris_)                           71\n\n  10. EGGS OF THE CUTTLE-FISH (_Sepia officinalis_)                 73\n\n  11. SPAWN OF THE COMMON SQUID (_Loligo vulgaris_)                 76\n\n  12. FAC-SIMILE OF DE MONTFORT\u2019S \u201c_Poulpe Colossal_\u201d              101\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nMore than 2200 years ago\u2014nearly four centuries before the Evangelists\nwrote their imperishable histories of the events on which the faith\nof Christendom is based\u2014Aristotle, the celebrated naturalist of\nStageira, in Macedonia, recorded observations of the habits and\nreproduction of the Octopus which clearly show that he was more\nintimately acquainted with its mode of life than any writer of a\nlater date between his day and ours.\n\nFor how many centuries before his time facts and fallacies\nconcerning this curious animal were handed down from father to son\nin oral tradition, and from generation to generation in manuscript,\nages before printing was invented, it is impossible to say: he\noccasionally quotes from the works of previous writers, and Strabo\ntells us that he had a good collection of books, and was the first\nphilosopher who possessed a library of his own. But the faint\nglimmering of information to be derived from early bookish lore was\ninsufficient to satisfy his desire and that of his sovereign for\nmore complete and perfect knowledge. Alexander the Great, who, in\nhis youth, was under his tuition for ten years, gave him, therefore,\nthe means of extending his researches, by placing at his disposal a\nlarge sum of money and a staff of assistants. According to Pliny the\nlatter were sent to various parts of Asia and Greece under orders to\ncollect animals of all kinds, and by means of vivaria, fishponds,\naviaries, &c., \u201cto watch their habits so closely that nothing\nrelating to them should remain unknown.\u201d Aristotle thus accumulated a\nmultitude of notes and observations, many of which, though ridiculed\nand discredited by later zoologists, were marvellously accurate; and\nfrom them constructed a work elaborate in its details, grand in its\nconception and idea, and comprehensive as a general history of the\nAnimal Kingdom.\n\nAmongst the inhabitants of the sea therein described by him is, as\nI have said, the Octopus or Polypus, and many of his statements\nconcerning it and its congeners have been remarkably confirmed by\nrecent observations. This animal has, therefore, been long known\nto naturalists. The ancient Egyptians figured it amongst their\nhieroglyphics;[1] the Greeks and Romans were well acquainted with it;\nand since the time of Homer many of the ancient poets and authors\nhave mentioned it in their works.\n\nThere is little doubt that the idea of the Lernean Hydra, whose heads\ngrew again when cut off by Hercules, originated from a knowledge of\nthe Octopus. Diodorus relates of it that it had a hundred heads;\nSimonides says fifty; but the generally received statement is that\nof Apollodorus, Hyginus, &c., that it had only nine. Reduce the\nnumber by one, and we have an animal with eight out-growths from\nits trunk\u2014the type of an Octopus, which is really capable of rapidly\ndeveloping afresh, and replacing by new ones, one or all of its eight\nlimbs in case of their being amputated or injured.[2] According to\nthe legend, Hercules dipped his arrow-heads in the gall of the hydra,\nand, from its poisonous nature, all the wounds he inflicted with them\non his enemies proved fatal. It is worthy of notice that the ancients\nattributed to the Octopus the possession of a similarly venomous\nsecretion. Thus Oppian writes:\u2014\n\n      \u201cThe crawling preke a deadly juice contains,\n      Injected poison fires the wounded veins.\u201d\n\nFishermen have been familiar with this animal from time immemorial;\nbut in modern days, although naturalists have occasionally noted some\npeculiarities of its structure and habits, public attention was never\nparticularly attracted to it until, within the last few years, Victor\nHugo brought it again into notice by the publication of his \u201c_Les\nTravailleurs de la Mer_.\u201d Since then it has been constantly exhibited\nin aquaria, and \u201cOctopus\u201d has become a household word.\n\n\n\n\nTHE OCTOPUS.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE OCTOPUS AND ITS RELATIVES.\n\n\nIt is not my intention to formally portray the anatomy of the\nOctopus,\u2014the nature and uses of its various organs will be\nsufficiently indicated in the course of my remarks,\u2014but before giving\nan account of its life-history and habits, I will briefly describe\nits affinities, and the position it occupies in the scale of Nature.\n\nOne of the great primary groups or divisions of the Animal Kingdom\nis that of the soft-bodied MOLLUSCA; which includes the cuttle, the\noyster, the snail, &c. It has been separated into five \u201cclasses,\u201d of\nwhich the one we have especially to notice is the _Cephalopoda_,[3]\nor \u201chead-footed,\u201d\u2014the animals belonging to it having their feet,\nor the organs which correspond with the foot of other molluscs,\nso attached to the head as to form a circle or coronet round the\nmouth. Some of these have the foot divided into eight lobes, and are\ntherefore called the _Octopoda_:[4] others have, in addition to the\neight feet, lobes, or arms, two longer tentacular appendages, making\nten in all, and are consequently called the _Decapoda_.\n\nOf the ten-footed section of the cephalopods, there are four\n\u201cfamilies\u201d; two only of which exist in Britain\u2014the Teuthid\u00e6, and the\nSepiid\u00e6. The Teuthid\u00e6 are the Squids, or Calamaries, represented by\nthe long-bodied _Loligo vulgaris_, that has along its back a gristly,\ntranslucent stiffener, shaped like a quill pen; from which and its\nink it derives its names of \u201ccalamary,\u201d \u201cpen-and-ink fish,\u201d and\n\u201csea-clerk.\u201d The Sepiid\u00e6 are the Cuttles; as a type of which we may\ntake the common \u201ccuttle-fish,\u201d _Sepia officinalis_, the owner of the\nhard, calcareous shell often thrown up on the shore, and known as\n\u201ccuttle-bone,\u201d or \u201csea-biscuit.\u201d\n\nOf the eight-footed cephalopods,\u2014the Octopoda,\u2014there are two\nfamilies; namely, the Octopid\u00e6, and the Argonautid\u00e6. The first only\nis found on our coasts. The British members of it are the common\nOctopus, _O. vulgaris_, and the Eledone, _E. cirrosa_, a genus\nchiefly distinguished from the octopus by its having only one row of\nsuckers, instead of two, along its arms or feet. The Argonautid\u00e6,\nwhich inhabit warmer seas than ours, and approach no nearer to us\nthan the Mediterranean and Adriatic, are represented by _Argonauta\nargo_, the \u201cPaper Nautilus,\u201d\u2014so called from the peculiar texture\nof its shell, and the similarity of its shape to that of the true\nNautilus, _N. pompilius_, from which, however, it differs greatly in\norganisation.\n\nAll of these four \u201cfamilies\u201d have two plume-like gills,\u2014one on each\nside\u2014and are therefore placed by Professor Owen in the \u201corder,\u201d\nDibranchiata. To this order belong also the extinct Belemnites, and\nthe still living Spirula, only one entire specimen of which has ever\nbeen obtained, and that was in New Zealand, though its beautiful\ninternal shells are sometimes thrown up on the shores of Devon and\nCornwall.\n\nThe Tetrabranchiata, or four-gilled cephalopods, are represented by\na single living genus\u2014the Pearly Nautilus, _N. pompilius_,\u2014but in\nSilurian times by 34 genera, and more than 1400 species.[5]\n\nThe following diagram will help to explain the relationship of the\nOctopus to the rest of the cephalopoda.\n\n                                     MOLLUSCA.\n                 /----------------------\u2014|---------------------------\\\n  _Classes._     Cephalopoda.         Pteropoda.     Lamellibranchiata.\n                      |    Gasteropoda.      Brachiopoda.\n                      |\n                 /----|---------------------------------------\\\n  _Orders._      Dibranchiata.                  Tetrabranchiata.\n                      |                                |\n                 /----|-------------\u2014\\   /-------------|------------\\\n  _Sections._    Decapoda.    Octopoda.  Nautilid\u00e6.        Ammonitid\u00e6.\n                      |           |              Orthoceratid\u00e6.\n                      |           +------------------------+\n                      |                                    |\n                 /----|-----------------------\\  /--------\u2014|---------\u2014\\\n  _Families._    Teuthid\u00e6.  Sepiid\u00e6. Spirulid\u00e6.  Octopid\u00e6.  Argonautid\u00e6.\n                    |  Belemnitid\u00e6.    |            |            |\n                    |                  |            |            |\n                 /--|---\u2014\\      /-----\u2014|--\u2014\\   /----|-----\\      |\n  _Genera._      The Squids:    The Cuttles:  The Octopus;       |\n                _Loligo_, &c.  _Sepia_, &c.  _O. vulgaris_, &c.  |\n                                                                 |\n                                                     /-----------|-----\\\n                                                     The Paper Nautilus:\n                                                         _Argonauta_.\n\nIt will be seen that it may be said to be first cousin to the\nArgonaut, or \u201cPaper Nautilus,\u201d and second cousin to the cuttle and\nsquid.\n\nThe Argonaut branch of the family is in possession of all the house\nproperty, which seems to have been entailed on the female line; for\nthe paper-nautilus is, in fact, a female octopod provided with a\nshell in which to carry and protect her eggs. Instead of the whole\nof the eight arms tapering to a point, as in the octopus, two of\nthe dorsal limbs are flattened out at their extremity, and from\ntheir membranes she secretes, and, if necessary, repairs the shell,\nand, by applying them closely to its outer surface on each side,\nholds herself within it; for it is not fastened to her body by any\nattaching muscles.[6]\n\nThe male argonaut is very small,\u2014not more than an inch in length,\u2014and\nhas no shell. Hence, even by eminent naturalists, as Dumeril and De\nBlainville, it was long regarded as doubtful whether the shell was\nreally secreted by the female, or whether, like the hermit-crab,\nshe borrowed for her protection the empty habitation of some other\nmollusc.\n\nIt is an old belief, sanctioned by Aristotle, that the broad\nmembranous expansions of the two arms, are hoisted by the animal as\nsails; and that in calm weather it sits in its boat-like shell, and\nfloats over the smooth surface of the sea, steering and paddling with\nits other arms; and that, when danger threatens, it lowers its masts,\nand sinks beneath the waves.\n\nOppian, in his \u201cHalieutics,\u201d poetically expresses his opinion that\nit served as a model for the man who first conceived the idea of\nconstructing a ship, and embarking on the waters:\u2014\n\n      \u201cIf humble guess may probably divine,\n      And trace th\u2019 improvement to the first design,\n      Some wight of prying search, who wond\u2019ring stood\n      When softer gales had smoothed the dimpled flood,\n      Observed these careless swimmers floating move,\n      And how each blast the easy sailor drove;\n      Hence took the hint, hence formed th\u2019 imperfect draught,\n      And ship-like fish the future seaman taught.\n      Then mortals tried the shelving hull to slope,\n      To raise the mast, and twist the stronger rope,\n      To fix the yards, let fly the crowded sails,\n      Sweep through the curling waves, and court auspicious gales.\u201d\n\nThis pretty fable was exploded in 1837 by Captain Sander Rang,\nan officer of the French navy, and Port-captain at Algiers, who\ncarefully followed up some experiments communicated to him by Mrs.\nPower, a French lady then residing at Messina; and the structure and\npurpose of the two flattened limbs is now clearly understood.[7]\n\nInstead of floating in its pleasure-boat over the sea, the argonaut\nordinarily crawls along the bottom, carrying its shell above it, keel\nuppermost; and the broad extremities of the two arms are not hoisted\nas sails, nor allowed, when at rest, to dangle over the side of the\n\u201cboat,\u201d but are used as a kind of hood by which the animal retains\nthe shell in its proper position, as a man bearing a load on his\nshoulders holds it with his hands. When it comes to the surface, or\nprogresses by swimming instead of walking, it does so in the same\nmanner as the octopus; namely, by the forcible expulsion of water\nfrom its funnel-like tube.[8]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 1. The Paper Nautilus (_Argonauta argo_). The\nmembrane is shewn partially retracted and the shell exposed.]\n\nThis \u201cpaper-sailor,\u201d then, whom the poets have regarded as endowed\nwith so much grace and beauty, and living in luxurious ease, is but a\nfine lady octopus after all. Turn her out of her handsome residence,\nand, instead of the fairy skimmer of the seas, you have before you\nwhat Mr. Mantalini would call a \u201cdem\u2019d damp, moist, unpleasant body,\u201d\nlike that of her weird and sprawling relative. The Paper Nautilus\nhas been regarded as the analogue of the snail, which, like it,\nsecretes an _external_ shell for the protection of its soft body;\nand the octopus as that of the garden slug, which, having organs\nlike those of the snail, as the octopus has organs like those of the\nshell-bearing argonaut, has no shell. The Cuttles and Squids may\nbe compared to some of the sea-slugs, as _Aplysia_ and _Bull\u00e6a_,\nand to some land-slugs, as _Parmacella_ and _Limax_, which have an\n_internal_ shell.[9]\n\nThe female octopus not being furnished with a shell, none of her arms\nare modified in form, like those of the argonaut, for the purpose of\nsecreting and holding one. The male octopus, also unlike the male\nargonaut, is as large as the female, but may easily be distinguished\nfrom her by his having numerous tubercles and papill\u00e6 on the skin,\nwhich become very prominent when he is irritated or excited.\nD\u2019Orbigny, not recognizing this peculiarity as sexual, regarded it\nas a specific distinction, and made of the male octopus a separate\nspecies, _O. tuberculatus_.\n\nHaving briefly explained the generic history and relationship of\nthe octopus, I propose to introduce to the reader some members\nof the family with whom I have been on friendly terms. A former\ncasual acquaintance with some of their kinsfolk at the sea-side,\nripened, afterwards, into a close and prolonged intimacy with them\nin their home; and I thus obtained an insight of their habits and\npeculiarities, many of which are very curious and interesting.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nOCTOPODS I HAVE KNOWN.\n\n\nThe first Octopus whose habits and mode of life I had opportunities\nof observing in captivity, was one exhibited in the Aquarium\nat Boulogne in September 1867. It was the prominent subject of\nconversation at the _tables d\u2019h\u00f4te_ of all the hotels there, and\nalmost the first words addressed to a new-comer were, \u201cHave you\nseen the devil-fish?\u201d It was but a miserable little imp, only half\nmatured in _diablerie_, and so persistently concealed itself by\nburrowing in a considerable depth of shingle, that all that could\ngenerally be seen of it was a portion of one of its arms waving\ngently in the water. But perhaps this was quite as well as if more\nhad been visible, for it left a great deal to the imagination, and\nwas also profitable to the proprietor, because people repeated their\nvisits daily in hope of obtaining a better view of it. The privilege\nof privately inspecting it was several times accorded to me, and I\nthen first witnessed many of the movements, ways, and habits of this\nanimal, with which I have since become familiar.\n\nThe first octopus received at the Brighton Aquarium was caught in a\nlobster-pot at Eastbourne in October 1872, and great was the joy that\nreigned in \u201cLondon-by-the-sea.\u201d For in the state of public feeling\nthen existing, an aquarium without an octopus was like a plum-pudding\nwithout plums. Share-holders might construct a handsome building,\nand stock its magnificently gigantic tanks with a variety of most\ninteresting fishes, but fashion and public opinion demanded of them\na \u201cdevil-fish,\u201d and if they were unable to exhibit one, all other\nattractions were disregarded. The new octopus became \u201cthe rage.\u201d\nVisitors jostled each other, and waited their turn to obtain a peep\nat him\u2014often a tantalizing exercise of patience, for the picturesque\nrock-work in the tanks provided so many hiding places, that, until\nthese were partially filled with cement, the popular favourite only\noccasionally condescended to show himself. Poor fellow! his career\nwas short, and his end sudden and shocking. During the interregnum\nbetween the death of my friend John Keast Lord, and the appointment\nof a successor to him in the curatorship, it became necessary to\nclean out a tank in which were some \u201cNurse-hounds,\u201d or \u201cLarger\nspotted dog-fishes,\u201d _Scyllium stellare_. No hostility between them\nand the octopus being anticipated by their attendant, they were\ntemporarily placed with it, and, for a while, they seemed to dwell\ntogether as peaceably as the \u201chappy family\u201d of animals that used to\nbe exhibited in a travelling cage at the foot of Waterloo Bridge;\nthe octopus usually remaining within the \u201cCottage-by-the-sea\u201d which\nhe had built for himself in the form of a grotto of living oysters,\nand the dog-fish apparently taking no notice of him. But one fatal\nday\u2014the 7th of January, 1873\u2014the \u201cdevil-fish\u201d was missing, and it was\nseen that one of the \u201ccompanions of his solitude\u201d was inordinately\ndistended. A thrill of horror ran through the corridors. There was\nsuspicion of crime and dire disaster. The corpulent nurse-hound was\ntaken into custody, lynched and disembowelled, and his guilt made\nmanifest. For there, within his capacious stomach, unmutilated and\nentire, lay the poor octopus who had delighted thousands during the\nChristmas holidays. It had been swallowed whole, and very recently,\nbut life was extinct.[10]\n\nIt is interesting to look back to the beginning of things, to trace\nthe progress of our knowledge of them, and to note the development\nof our ideas concerning them, and the change of sentiment with which\nthey are regarded. I saw lately a dead octopus, which had acquired\n\u201ca very ancient and fish-like smell,\u201d kicked about by boys in the\ncarriage-way of a Brighton street without attracting attention; but,\nso strongly was public interest excited by \u201cthe dog-fish and octopus\ncase,\u201d that the press teemed with paragraphs on the \u201ctragic fate of\nan octopus,\u201d and even in the London daily papers appeared brilliantly\nwritten and kindly sympathetic leaders on the subject. The concluding\nparagraph of one was as follows:\u2014\u201cThus was an end put to a most\ndistinguished and useful life. Octopuses doubtless die every day,\nbut seldom has there been an octopus who will be so much missed as\nthe octopus at Brighton.\u201d This was prophetic. For nearly two months\nthe loss was not repaired. Golden tench from Aldermaston, trout from\nByron\u2019s Newstead, red mullet and other rarities, could not suffice to\nfill the void. At length, on the 1st of March, a fine specimen was\nreceived from Mevagissey, Cornwall. Then Brighton was herself again,\nand the officials of the Aquarium jubilant. As the spring advanced,\nfacilities for procuring these animals increased. Specimens were\nsent from the French coast, and others\u2014a dozen at a time\u2014from the\nChannel Islands, until it appeared not impossible that the octopus\nwould become so abundant, that the very dog-fishes would be satiated\nwith them, like the apprentices with salmon,[11] and parodying the\nschool-boys\u2019 grace\n\n      \u201cMutton hot, mutton cold,\n      Mutton new, mutton old,\n      Mutton tender, mutton tough,\n      Of mutton we have had enough\u2014\u201d\n\nwould refuse to eat one oftener than once a week.\n\nSince then, the Brighton Aquarium has only once been without an\noctopus; and although the popular chief of curiosities in a marine\nvivarium has doubtless passed the zenith of his greatness, he still\nholds an honoured place amongst the \u201cpast masters\u201d of the tanks.\n\nAfter the publication in the \u201cTimes,\u201d \u201cLand and Water\u201d and other\npapers, of my notes of observations of the habits of the octopus\nin confinement, I was favoured with several private letters on\nthe subject; some of them from strangers giving me interesting\ninformation concerning it, derived from their own experience, and\nothers requesting me to decide between adverse opinions based\nrespectively on the florid conceptions of the novelist, and the\nscarcely less romantic, though truthful, description of the\nnaturalist.\n\nArticles and paragraphs on the same topic, also, not infrequently\nappeared about that time, in daily and weekly papers; of one of which\nthe following is a portion:\u2014\u201cIt is much to be hoped that as time and\nobservation serve, Mr. Lee will give to the public a paper devoted to\na close scientific examination of Victor Hugo\u2019s description of the\ndevil-fish, so as to settle to the minutest points wherein it is true\nto nature, and wherein the novelist has deviated from the severity\nof fact.\u201d I confess the thought never before occurred to me to\ndissect the author\u2019s description of the frightful animal he depicts,\nbecause I have always regarded it as an accumulation of intentionally\nfanciful and ingenious exaggerations, which, with great melodramatic\npower, he succeeded in combining into an embodiment of mysterious\nhorror. But I accepted the suggestion, and have incorporated in a\ncomparative analysis of M. Hugo\u2019s stirring romance, a description of\nthe organization of the octopus or _pieuvre_, and of those of its\nhabits to which he alludes. Other circumstances of its life-history,\nwhich did not come within the scope of his work, are treated of in\nseparate chapters. Before critically reviewing his narration of the\nincidents referred to, it may be desirable to give a brief summary of\nthe plot of the story of which they form a part, and which made the\noctopus famous.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n\u201cTHE TOILERS OF THE SEA.\u201d\n\n\nThe scene of \u201cLes Travailleurs de la Mer\u201d is Guernsey, and the two\ncharacters brought most prominently forward are Gilliatt and Clubin.\nGilliatt was a man not much liked. He avoided company, neither drank,\nsmoked, chewed, nor snuffed; and lived in a house which, if not then\nhaunted, was suspected of having formerly been so. None, however,\ncould deny that he was a thorough seaman, a successful fisherman, a\nskilful pilot, and an expert swimmer; and subsequent events proved\nhim to possess dauntless courage, pertinacious determination, a soft\nheart, and chivalrous spirit. Clubin was in every moral quality\nexactly the reverse. He had the reputation of being a man of severe\nprobity, strictly religious, and of unsurpassable integrity; and\nthus was appointed master of a little steamer named the \u201cDurande,\u201d\nwhich traded between Guernsey and St. Malo, and belonged to a\nMonsieur Lathierry. But although Clubin had gained the good opinion\nof his neighbours by his cunning and adroitness, he was a consummate\nhypocrite, and an unscrupulous scoundrel. A former partner of\nLathierry, named Rantaine, had robbed their joint cash-box ten years\npreviously of a hundred thousand francs, fifty thousand of which,\nof course, belonged to Lathierry. Nothing had been seen or heard of\nhim since he absconded, until one day Clubin caught sight of him in\nSt. Malo, watched him enter the shop of a money-changer, and receive\nthree bank-notes of 1000_l._ each (75,000 francs), and, at once\nsurmising that they were the proceeds of the embezzlement, determined\nto possess them. He prepared his plans carefully, obtained with some\ndifficulty a revolver (then a novelty in fire-arms), ascertained\nthat Rantaine intended to escape from France in a vessel, the captain\nof which had agreed to send a boat ashore for him; and just as he\nwas about to embark, after killing a coastguardsman to prevent his\ngiving an alarm, presented the revolver at his head, and demanded\n\u201crestitution,\u201d as he called it, of the plunder. An altercation\nensued; but the formidable weapon gave its owner superiority, and\nRantaine was made to toss to his opponent from a distance the three\nbank-notes, enclosed in an iron tobacco-box, and was then allowed to\ndepart. Clubin had already decided on the measures he would adopt to\nenable him to enjoy his ill-obtained wealth in a foreign country,\nwithout exciting a suspicion of his evil deed. The \u201cDurande\u201d was to\nleave St. Malo the next day, on her return trip to Guernsey with\npassengers and cargo. Weather-wise mariners predicted a fog, and\nurged Clubin not to leave port; but he resolutely disregarded their\nadvice, and put to sea, placed a bottle of brandy in the secret\nhiding-place used by his tippling steersman, who fell into the trap\nand got drunk; and when the expected fog came on, the austere and\npuritanical captain sent him forward with a reprimand, and, to the\nadmiration and satisfaction of the passengers, took the helm himself,\nand went on at full steam for his destination. There were some on\nboard who thought he was running a great risk in not slackening\nspeed; and one passenger, a Guernsey man, felt sure that they were\nnot in their right course, and told the captain that more than once,\nwhen the fog had lifted a little, he had recognised the land a-head\nas a point called the \u201cHanois.\u201d But Clubin kept straight on; for\nthis was just the spot where he had deliberately determined to run\nthe vessel ashore. In a few minutes she struck. The boat was got\nover the side and launched, passengers and crew took their places\nin her, and then all waited for the captain. But the devoted man\nrefused to leave his vessel. He would do his duty to the last, and\nsink with her; and so, finding persuasion useless, they were obliged\nto put off without him; some weeping for sorrow, and all regarding\nhim as an hero, and the most honest man that ever sailed the seas.\nHere, then, was Clubin, alone in the very position he desired,\nwith 75,000 francs in his pocket, and having succeeded, whilst\nperpetrating all his villainy, in gaining, instead of losing, the\nesteem of his fellow-men. He would give the over-crowded boat time\nto get away\u2014to be lost, perhaps, with all on board. The short mile\nto the shore would be nothing for a swimmer like him to traverse; he\nwould soon gain the land, conceal himself for a time, and then quit\nthe neighbourhood; whilst he would be supposed to be dead, and would\nleave an honoured name behind him. He waited, and exulted over his\nsuccess. Suddenly, through a rift in the fog, a huge object attracted\nhis horrified gaze. He had been deceived in his position. Instead of\nhaving run the \u201cDurande\u201d on the Hanois, before him was the formidable\n\u201cRocher Douvres\u201d\u2014the \u201cMan-Rock.\u201d Hideous and instant is the change\nin his condition\u2014five leagues of sea, instead of one mile, between\nhim and the main! To swim that distance is impossible; he can never\nreach the land. Death from cold and hunger stare him in the face. His\n75,000 francs will not here purchase him a crust of bread. His only\nhope now lies in his being seen by some passing ship, and eagerly he\nlooks to seaward. A sail appears\u2014approaches\u2014the vessel is a cutter.\nBut those on board will never see him where he stands. If he can but\nreach the rock he will no doubt be perceived. There is not a minute\nto lose; he will try; two hundred strokes will do it, and he will be\nsaved. He throws off all his clothes, buckles around his naked body\nthe leather belt in which is the tobacco-box containing the notes,\nand plunges into the sea. He touches the bottom, grazes for a moment\nthe side of a submerged rock, then makes an effort to rise to the\nsurface. At this instant he feels himself seized by the foot.\n\nIn this horrible situation the author leaves him for a time, and\nfollows the course of events on the island which the miserable\nwretch was destined never to reach. The boat was seen by a small\ncoaster, and its occupants taken on board, and conveyed to St. Peter\nPort. The rescued crew and passengers of the \u201cDurande\u201d quickly\nspread the tidings of the disaster, which fell with crushing effect\non her owner, Lathierry; the whole blame was laid on Tangrouille,\nthe drunken steersman, who was imprisoned, and the magnanimity of\nClubin was everywhere extolled. The master of a cutter, which arrived\na few hours after the landing of the saved people, reported that,\nhearing the bellowing of the oxen which were a portion of the little\nsteamer\u2019s freight, and the fog having dispersed, he had borne down\nto the wreck and approached near enough to be certain that there was\nno one on board; and consequently an opinion was expressed that the\nheroic captain had been taken off by some sloop or lugger belonging\nto Granville or St. Malo, and his return was hourly expected. The\nsteamer had broken her back, said the cutter\u2019s master, but the\nengine appeared not to be damaged. It was suggested that it might be\npossible to preserve it; but the seaman shook his head, and gravely\nreplied that \u201cThe man did not exist who could go there and remove\nit.\u201d Renewed hope roused Lathierry from his stupor, and he exclaimed,\nwith a solemn oath, that he would give his daughter, Deruchette, in\nmarriage to the man who would perform the feat. Gilliatt had long\nsecretly loved the girl, and he determined if possible to achieve\nthe task, and thus to win her. He quietly stole away from the crowd,\nand the same night, alone and unaided, got under weigh his fishing\ncraft, which he had won as a prize for seamanship in a regatta, and\nproceeded to the wreck. After much toil and endurance of hardship\nfor more than two months, he succeeded in extricating the engine\nand getting it on board his boat. His work completed, he had only\nto wait for the tide to return in triumph with his prize. But he\nwas faint with hunger. He had long since exhausted the stock of\nprovisions he had brought with him, and had subsisted on the molluscs\nand crustaceans he had been able to find on the rocks; and, now, it\nbecame necessary to search for one more meal before his departure.\nProfiting by the low tide, and taking his knife between his teeth,\nhe descended, by the help of hands and feet, the steep escarpment\ninto a pool. The water came up to his shoulders. During his search\nfor lobsters, cray-fish, and crabs, he espied a cavern, the arched\nportal of which was partly uncovered. He entered. A fine crab,\nfrightened at his approach, escaped into a horizontal fissure in the\nrock. He thrust his hand into the crevice, and suddenly felt himself\nseized. Something slender, rough, adhesive, chilling, and living,\nwas twisting itself in the gloom around his naked arm. It proved to\nbe one of the limbs of a _pieuvre_ (octopus), or \u201cdevil-fish,\u201d and\nhe had a terrible fight with the creature. It will be convenient to\nconsider in detail the particulars of the combat after finishing\nour epitome of the narrative of which it fills the most remarkable\nchapters. Gilliatt, after a desperate struggle, succeeded in cutting\nhimself free, and in killing the animal with his knife; and then,\npanting with his exertions, turned to leave the place where he\nhad encountered so dangerous a foe. As he did so, something which\nstartled him caught his eye. He fancied he saw at the back of the\ncavern a face which laughed at him. He approached, and stooping down,\nfound it was a human skull, with the rest of the skeleton. It was\nsurrounded by a multitude of crabs, but they were dead and their\nshells empty. It was the larder of the \u201cdevil-fish\u201d; the monster had\neaten the crabs; the crabs had eaten the man. There were no articles\nof clothing to be seen; but, scraping away the crab-shells beneath\nwhich the skeleton was half buried, Gilliatt perceived around the\nvertebral column a leather belt, which had evidently been buckled\nabout the body of the man before his death. The leather was wet,\nthe buckle rusty; so Gilliatt cut the girdle with his knife. It\ncontained an old iron tobacco-box, which he forced open, and found\nin it _three bank-notes of \u00a31000 each_ (75,000 francs), and twenty\nguineas in gold. He examined the belt more closely; and there, traced\nin indelible lithographic ink, were the words, \u201c_Sieur Clubin_.\u201d The\nskull, the bones, and the belt were all that remained of the robber\nand hypocrite: the \u201cdevil-fish\u201d had held him under water and drowned\nhim; the crabs had eaten him.\n\nGilliatt started on his return passage to Guernsey in joyful\ncertainty that he had earned the fulfilment of his wishes. Deruchette\nwould be his wife. He had saved the engine of her father\u2019s vessel,\nand, more than that, had recovered the old man\u2019s stolen fortune.\nTrue to his natural shrinking from observation, he timed his voyage\nso that he arrived in port after dark, moored his sloop with her\ncargo of machinery to the old ring in the harbour wall to which the\n\u201cDurande\u2019s\u201d cable used to be made fast, and then, without announcing\nhis return to anyone, retired to a nook overhung with brambles and\nivy, where he had often watched for hours\u2014himself unseen, and his\nlove unsuspected\u2014the house where dwelt the mistress of his heart, and\nthe garden in which she often walked. Near him, at the side of one\nof the paths, was a rustic seat. As he gazed fixedly on the windows\nof her chamber, and thought rapturously of his future happiness,\nDeruchette herself left the house and came towards him. She sat down\non the bench, in his full view, and with pensive, meditative air,\nremained motionless, as if in a dream. The thought of speaking to\nher never entered his head. He saw her, was near her\u2014that was enough\nfor him for the moment. A sound of approaching footsteps roused her\nfrom her reverie, and him from his ecstasy. It was the young rector,\nthe Rev. Ebenezer Caudray, who had sought her to make her an offer\nof marriage before leaving for England on the following morning.\nUnhappy Gilliatt was a witness of his pleadings, her yielding, their\nbetrothal and embrace.\n\nMeanwhile Lathierry had seen from his window the funnel of the\n\u201cDurande\u201d standing at the old moorings; and, scarcely believing his\neyes, rushed to the harbour bell, and rang it long and violently.\nAmongst those who appeared was Gilliatt, who, accompanying him to\nhis home, laid before him the bank-notes and Clubin\u2019s belt. The\nold man, wild with joy, confirmed his offer of his daughter\u2019s hand\nto the man who had so nobly won his gratitude. But Gilliatt, to his\nastonishment, refused her: he knew that her affections were pledged\nto another, and determined in his own mind that she should marry the\nman of her choice. The next morning he met the lovers, and, with\nfeverish haste, insisted on the immediate performance of the marriage\nceremony; dragged them to the church, where, by an artifice, he\nsubstituted his rival for himself as bridegroom, and then hurried\nthem on board the packet-boat which was just setting sail. His work\naccomplished, the desperate man locked up his house, and strode\nalong the shore to a point of land close to which the vessel bearing\nEbenezer and Deruchette must pass. At its extremity was a kind of\n\u201clovers\u2019 seat,\u201d called the \u201cChaise Gild-Holm\u2019-Ur,\u201d covered by the sea\nat every tide, and near to which he had once rescued the young cur\u00e9\nfrom drowning. There he sat, watching the craft, on the deck of which\nhe could see the newly-wedded pair. It advanced nearer; the tide\nrose to his ankles:\u2014it came opposite to him; the water reached his\nwaist:\u2014it passed: he watched and watched, and the tide rose and rose,\nuntil, as the vessel was lost to view, his head disappeared beneath\nthe waves.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND OF FACT.\n\n\nBearing in mind that the famous story of \u201cThe Toilers of the Sea\u201d\nshould be regarded as a romance and not as a scientific treatise, I\nwill now endeavour to compare the \u201cdevil-fish\u201d of the author with\nthe octopus of nature, and to indicate the points on which M. Hugo\u2019s\nrepresentation of his \u201cmonster\u201d is either substantially correct,\npartly true, or entirely unreal.\n\nHis description of the seizure of Gilliatt by the _pieuvre_ shows\nthat he was tolerably well acquainted with its habits, mode of\nattack, and external form. The half terrifying, half disgusting\ngrasp of one of the animal\u2019s sucker-furnished arms, \u201csupple as\nleather, tough as steel, cold as night;\u201d the issuing of a second from\nthe crevice, \u201clike a tongue from out a mouth,\u201d and the successive\napplication of a third, fourth, and fifth, to various parts of his\nbody, whilst the other three retained firm hold of the rock, is\npowerfully, and, so far, correctly, depicted, if highly-coloured.\nAnd, although, when the octopus desires to alter the position of\nthe suckers and to change its hold, it generally effects that by an\ninstantaneous relaxation and renewal of the suction, by protrusion\nor retraction of the muscular piston within each, yet the gliding\nof the cupping discs over the surface of a man\u2019s wet skin is also\nin accordance with possibility, for I have tested it with a living\noctopus on my own arm. This will be easily understood by anyone who\nhas watched the movements of the entomostracous parasites of fishes.\nThe so-called river-louse, _Argulus foliaceus_, which infests all\nfreshwater fishes, can run over their scales without loosening the\nhold of the two great suckers with which it is furnished; and others\nwhich, like _Caligus_ and _Lepeotheirus_, have a water-tight carapace\nwith a flexible margin, are able to move rapidly over the body of the\nfish in the same way.\n\nIn his relation of the manner in which the octopus captures its prey,\nthe novelist is therefore substantially in accord with nature. The\npoints on which he chiefly errs, are\u2014\n\n1st. The structure, use, capability, and effect on its victim, of its\narms and suckers.\n\n2nd. Its general organisation.\n\n3rd. Its mode of progression when swimming.\n\n4th. The manner in which it devours and digests its food.\n\nThe arms are described as \u201cencircling Gilliatt\u2019s whole body,\ncutting into his ribs like cord; ... forming a ligature about his\nstomach; ... enfolding and constricting his diaphragm like straps;\nproducing such compression that he could hardly breathe; ... his\nbody almost disappearing under the folds of this horrible bandage;\nits knots garotting him, its contact paralysing him.\u201d The suckers\nare represented as being \u201clike so many lips trying to drink your\nblood; ... they bury themselves to the depth of an inch in the flesh\nof their prisoner; ... on contact with them your muscles swell, the\nfibres are wrenched, and your blood gushes forth, and mixes horribly\nwith the lymph of the mollusc.\u201d\n\nThe whole of this is fallacious. The arms of the octopus are not used\nas weapons of constriction, compression, or suffocation. They are\neight radiating, supple, tapering thongs, in ordinary specimens from\neighteen inches to two feet long, on each of which are mounted, in a\ndouble row, numerous sucking discs, which decrease in size towards\nthe tips of the limbs, and act as so many dry cupping-glasses. There\nare normally about 240 of these suckers on each arm, making a total\nof about 1,920. I have counted more in some individuals. M. Hugo\ngives their number as \u201cfifty on each arm, 400 in all;\u201d so on this\npoint he very much understates his case.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 2. Sucker of the Octopus. (_O. vulgaris_).]\n\nThe cups themselves, by their internal mechanism for air exhaustion,\nand consequent pressure of the outer atmosphere, adhere firmly to any\nsubstance to which they are applied, whether stone, fish, crustacean,\nor flesh of man; but in the octopus they have no power to puncture\nor lacerate the skin, or to cause blood to flow. They are merely\npneumatically prehensile organs, by which the animal\u2019s prey is caught\nand held; not by \u201charpooning,\u201d as the novelist supposes, but by their\natmospheric adhesion to the surface of its body. In this genus the\nsucking discs are composed of a muscular membrane, the circumference\nof which is thick and fleshy, and in some species cartilaginous, but\nin all unarmed, and only adapted to secure close, air-tight contact\nwith any object it may touch. When experimenting on the holding force\nof an octopus I have allowed it to fix its suckers firmly on my arm\nand the back of my hand, and by pretending to try to pull them away\nfrom its grasp have caused it to exert its utmost power of resistance\nand retention. The only effect of this has been that the vacuum\nproduced an almost indistinguishable circular mark, corresponding\nwith the edge of the larger discs, and not nearly so distinct as\nwould be caused by the application of a glass tube to the skin, and\nthe partial exhaustion of the air in it by drawing it from the other\nend by the mouth and tongue. In some of the Cephalopods the outer\ncircle of the cups is a horny ring, sharply serrated or dentated\naround its edge; and in others\u2014for instance, _Onychoteuthis_\u2014the\ncentre of each cup is provided with a sharp, strong hook, capable of\nbeing extended or sheathed, like the claws of a cat, which is plunged\ndeeply into the flesh of slippery prey for the better security of its\nhold; but the cuttle-fishes thus furnished are, unlike the octopus,\nhabitually swimmers, instead of rock-crawlers. The sessile arms of\nthe octopods are considerably longer than those of the decapods, or\nten-armed cuttle-fishes; but the latter have, in addition to the\neight corresponding limbs, two long tentacular arms, which, in some\ngenera, are marvellous in the perfection of their compound apparatus\nfor securing and holding a struggling captive. This arrangement\nis well suited to their habits and mode of life. Animals purely\nswimmers, and which hunt and overtake their prey by speed, would be\nimpeded by having to drag after them a bundle of lengthy appendages\ntrailing heavily astern. But a long reach of arm is an advantage,\ninstead of a hindrance, to the octopus; for, although it can swim\non occasion, its ordinary habit is, either to rest suspended to the\nside of a rock, to which it clings with the suckers of several of\nits arms, in the position shewn in the frontispiece, or to remain\nlurking in some favourite cranny; its body thrust for protection\nand concealment well back in the interior of the recess; its bright\neyes keenly on the watch; three or four of its limbs firmly attached\nto the walls of its hiding-place\u2014the others gently waving, gliding,\nand feeling about in the water, as if to maintain its vigilance,\nand keep itself always on the alert, and in readiness to pounce on\nany unfortunate wayfarer that may pass near its den. To small fish,\ncrustacean or mollusc, the slightest contact with even one of those\nlithe arms is fatal. Instantaneously as pull of trigger brings down\na bird, or touch of electric wire explodes a torpedo or a mining\nfuse, the pistons of the series of suckers are simultaneously drawn\ninward, the air is removed from the pneumatic holders, and a vacuum\ncreated in each; the victim strives to escape; a further retraction\nof the central part of the disc makes all secure; and, as arm after\narm, containing a perfect mitrailleuse of inverted air-guns, takes\nhorrid hold, battery after battery of them is brought to bear, and\nthe pressure of the air is so great that nothing can effect the\nrelaxation of their retentive power but the destruction of the air\npump that works them, or the closing of the throttle-valve by which\nthey are connected with it.[12]\n\nDesiring to have a better view than I had previously been able to\nobtain of that which follows the seizure of a crab by an octopus,\nI fastened one to a string, by which an attendant was to lower it\nin the water close to the glass, whilst I stood watching in front.\nThe crab had hardly descended to the depth of two feet before an\noctopus for which it was not intended, and which I had not observed\n(so exactly had he assumed the hue of the surface to which he\nclung), shot out like a rocket from one side of the tank, opened\nhis membranous umbrella, shut up the suspended crab within it, and\ndarted back again to the ledge of rock on which he had been lying in\nambush. There he held on, with the crab firmly pressed between his\nbody and the stone work. As this was not what I wished, I directed\nmy assistant to gently try to pull the bait away from him. As soon\nas he felt the strain, he took a firm grasp of the rock with all\nthe suckers of seven of his arms, and, stretching the eighth aloft,\ncoiled it round the tautened line, the suckers actually closing on\nthe line also, as a caterpillar\u2019s foot gripes a thin twig, or a\ncobbler\u2019s leather pad folds round his thread when he is making a\nwax-end. It then became a game of \u201cpull devil, pull baker,\u201d and the\n\u201cdevil-fish\u201d won it. Noticing several jerks on the string, I thought\nat first they were given by the man overhead, and told him not to\nuse too much force; but he called out, \u201cIt\u2019s not me, sir, it\u2019s the\noctopus: I can\u2019t move him; and he\u2019s pulling so hard that, if I don\u2019t\nlet go, he\u2019ll break the line.\u201d \u201cHold on, then, and let him break it,\u201d\nI replied. Tug! tug! dragged the tough, strong arm of the octopus;\nand at the third tug the line broke, and the crab was all his own.\nThe twine was that used for mending the seine net, and was therefore\nnot particularly weak.\n\nAlthough this experiment furnished a fresh illustration of the\nholding power of an octopus, it had not taught me exactly that which\nI wanted to know. I wished to be underneath that umbrella with the\ncrab, or (which was decidedly preferable) to be able to see what\nhappened beneath it without getting wet. My plan, therefore, was to\nprocure the seizure of the crab against the front glass, instead of\nagainst the rock-work. Our next endeavour was successful. A second\ncrab was so fastened that the string could be withdrawn if desired,\nand was lowered near to a great male octopus, who generally dwelt in\na nook in the west front corner of the tank. He was sleepy, and not\nvery hungry, and required a great deal of tempting to rouse him to\nactivity; but the sight of his favourite food overcame his laziness,\nand, after some demonstrative panting, puffing, and erection of his\ntubercles, he lunged out an arm to seize the precious morsel. It was\nwithdrawn from his reach; and so, at last, he turned out of bed,\nrushed at it, and got it under him against the plate-glass, just\nas I desired. In a second the crab was completely pinioned. Not a\nmovement, not a struggle was visible or possible: each leg, each\nclaw, was grasped all over by suckers\u2014enfolded in them\u2014stretched out\nto its full extent by them. The back of the carapace was covered\nall over with the tenacious vacuum-discs, brought together by the\nadaptable contraction of the limb, and ranged in close order,\nshoulder to shoulder, touching each other; whilst, between those\nwhich dragged the abdominal plates towards the mouth, the black tip\nof the hard, horny beak was seen for a single instant protruding from\nthe circular orifice in the centre of the radiation of the arms, and,\nthe next, had crunched through the shell, and was buried deep in the\nflesh of the victim.\n\nThe action of an octopus when seizing its prey for its necessary food\nis very like that of a cat pouncing on a mouse, and holding it down\nbeneath its paws. The movement is as sudden, the scuffle as brief,\nand the escape of the prisoner even less probable. The fate of the\ncrab is not, really, more terrible than that of the mouse, or of a\nminnow swallowed by a perch; but there is a repulsiveness about the\nform, colour, and attitudes of its captor which invests it with a\nkind of tragic horror.\n\nIn the next chapter the author writes:\u2014\n\n  \u201cTo believe in the existence of the _pieuvre_ one must have seen\n  it. Compared to it the ancient hydras were insignificant. Orpheus,\n  Homer, and Hesiod imagined only the chim\u00e6ra:\u2014Providence created\n  the devil-fish. If terror was the object of its creation, it is\n  perfection.\n\n  \u201cThe \u2018pieuvre\u2019 has _no muscular organisation_, no menacing cry,\n  no breast-plate, no horn, no dart, no tail with which to hold or\n  bruise, no cutting fins, or wings with claws, no prickles, no\n  sword, no electric discharge, no venom, no talons, _no beak_, no\n  teeth.... It has no bones, _no blood_, _no flesh_. It is soft and\n  flabby. _It is an empty flask; a skin with nothing inside it. Its\n  eight tentacles may be turned inside out, like the fingers of a\n  glove. It has a single orifice, which is both vent and mouth. The\n  same opening performs both functions._\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 3. Mandibles of Octopus. (_O. vulgaris_).]\n\nSo says the novelist. The naturalist knows that it has a complete\nand perfect muscular organisation; muscles which serve to retract\nand depress the funnel, bundles of strong muscles passing along\nthe arms and branching to each of the suckers, within which other\n_fasciculi_ of muscular fibres converge from the circumference to\nthe centre, and by their contraction produce the vacuum which gives\nto the animal its power of adhesion,\u2014muscles all over its body, and\na mass of muscles of such strength to work the powerful beak, that\nif anyone, believing the fictionist, were to place his finger in the\nsmall circular orifice in the centre of the base of the arms, he\nwould possibly learn practically that it is not \u201can empty flask with\nnothing in it.\u201d A sharp nip might perhaps teach him that it has not\nonly muscles, but a mouth and head also. For just within the oral\ncavity lie, retracted and hidden, but ready for use when wanted, a\npair of horny mandibles which bite vertically, like the beak of a\nparrot or turtle, except that the lower mandible is the longest and\noverlaps the upper, and are so hard that they can not only tear the\nsofter animals the octopus is able to catch, but also break up the\nshells of lobsters, crabs, and mussels, which are its usual food.\nThe head contains a brain, from which arises the system of nerves;\nand the animal has a sense of smell, and organs of hearing and\ntaste, besides those which are apparent on its exterior, namely,\nof sight and touch. Instead of having \u201cno blood,\u201d it is furnished\nwith a complete circulatory apparatus consisting of one systemic and\ntwo branchial hearts, arteries which distribute the blood through\nall parts of the body, and a system of veins or canals by which it\nreturns towards the gills, of which breathing organs the animal has\ntwo\u2014one on each side. By the alternate expansion and contraction\nof the bladder-like mantle-sac\u2014an action resembling that of a pair\nof bellows\u2014the water is pumped into contact with these gills,\nwhich convey to the blood the oxygen contained in it; and when its\nlife-giving, purifying gas has been extracted from it, it is expelled\nby the muscular, valved funnel, or syphon tube, which has also\nanother function, to be presently described. Far from being \u201ca skin\nwith nothing inside it,\u201d from the beak and mouth (within which is a\ntongue like a rasp, having recurved spines or teeth) is continued the\nalimentary canal, \u0153sophagus, crop, gizzard, stomach, and intestines;\nand within this so-called \u201cempty pouch\u201d are also the liver, and the\norgans of reproduction and respiration. The \u201ctentacles,\u201d or arms,\ncannot be \u201cturned inside out like the fingers of a glove.\u201d On making\na section across one of them, it will be seen that it is composed\nof close muscles, the fibres of some of which run longitudinally,\nand others transversely. The arm, therefore, is more like the strong\nflexible lash of a stout hunting whip than the finger of a glove, and\nis solid, except that it has a perforation along the centre of its\naxis for the lodgment of its nerve and artery.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 4. Tongue of the Octopus (_O. vulgaris_).\nMagnified 12 diameters.]\n\nThe author accurately describes the action and movement of the\noctopus, and its utilisation of its eight arms when crawling at\nthe bottom, or on ledges of rocks. The globose body is then turned\nupward, the mouth downward, and the arms sprawl along, and by\ngrappling some fresh object drag the body after them. But he is\nmistaken concerning its mode of progression when swimming. After\nstating that in swimming, it, so to speak, sheaths and draws close\ntogether its arms, which is quite true, he continues:\u2014\n\n  \u201cFigure to yourself a sleeve sewn up with a fist in it. This fist,\n  _which is the head_, pushes through the water, and advances with an\n  undulating movement.\u201d\n\nThat which M. Hugo supposes to be the head is the body of the\nanimal. He appears to have received this impression from Pliny,[13]\nwho writes:\u2014\u201cThe head, which is directed obliquely when they swim,\nis, in the living animal, hard and distended like a balloon.\u201d The\ncuttle-fishes, and the octopus amongst them, propel themselves\nrapidly _backward_, when swimming, by the forcible expulsion from\nthe funnel, in sudden and frequent jets, of the water drawn in at\nthe branchial, or gill openings. Thus the organs of respiration\nbecome those of locomotion as well, and the funnel has also another\nfunction, being the orifice from which the excreta are expelled.\nIt has been asserted by various writers\u2014and the statement has been\nrepeated by many able naturalists\u2014that the octopus swims by vigorous\nflappings of the expanded membrane which extends from the sheath of\nthe mouth along the arms, and connects the bases of the latter like\nthe web of a duck\u2019s foot. It is true that this sometimes, though very\nrarely, takes place, but its proper and usual mode of progression\nis with the body in advance, the arms closely packed together, and\ndirected backward horizontally in its wake, whilst the jets of water,\npumped out at frequent intervals from the funnel, propel it at a\nconsiderable speed. I have had opportunities of watching the habits\nof at least a hundred individuals of this species, yet have only\nthree or four times seen them progress, when swimming, by powerful\ncontraction of the web-like membrane, and then but for a very short\ndistance. Still less frequently does the octopus reverse its usual\ncourse; but I have twice seen one swim with its arms extended in\nadvance of it, by bending the syphon tube beneath its body so as to\npresent the orifice in a direction exactly contrary to its normal\nposition.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 5. The Octopus swimming.]\n\nM. Hugo forcibly refers to the remarkable property of rapidly\nchanging its colour possessed by this animal. He writes:\u2014\n\n  \u201cIts under surface is yellowish; its upper, earthy. Its dusty\n  hue can neither be imitated nor explained: it might be called a\n  \u2018a beast made of ashes, which inhabits the water.\u2019 Irritated, it\n  becomes violet. It is a spider in form, a chameleon in coloration.\u201d\n\nWhen quiescent, the general tone of colour of the octopus is a\nmottled brown, but it assimilates itself as much as possible to\nthe rock to which for the time it may be holding. The moment it\ncommences to swim it assumes a deeper hue, which usually becomes\na dark, dingy red, but sometimes tends to purple. Mr. Darwin, in\nhis delightful \u201cJournal of Researches made during the Voyage of\nH.M.S. Beagle,\u201d mentions his having noticed its endeavour to escape\ndetection by the use of this chameleon-like power of changing colour\nso quickly as to cause it to vary with the nature of the ground\nover which it passes. This is effected in the same manner as the\nsimilar mutation of colour in the chameleon. Through the thin and\ntransparent outer skin are visible cells in the inner layer beneath\nit, which contain pigment-matter of yellow, blue, red, and brown.\nBy the contraction and expansion of the cells, prominence is given\nto one or another of these colours, at the will of the owner; and\nnot only do the spots appear, and fade, and alternate in position,\nbut, like human beings, the octopus turns pale when exhausted, and\nflushes red under the influence of anger or excitement. A curious\nplay of colour, which I have elsewhere compared with the flashing\nand dying out of sparks in tinder, often takes place on the skin of\nthe cephalopods by the continued action of the pigment cells, long\nafter the death of the animal. The ancients were well acquainted with\nthis colour-changing habit of the octopus. Aristotle mentions it, and\nOppian describes it as follows:\u2014\n\n      \u201cAll fishers know the changing prekes\u2019 deceit,\n      How, clung to rocks, when coming dangers threat\n      New forms they take, and wear a borrowed dress,\n      Mock the true stone, and colours well express.\n      As the rock looks they take a different stain,\n      Dapple with grey, or branch the livid vein.\n      Thus they, concealed, the dreaded danger shun\n      By borrowed shapes obscured, and lost in seeming stone.\u201d\n\nIt was also frequently referred to by other writers. Athen\u00e6us quotes\nTheognis of Megara as saying in his Elegies:\u2014\n\n      \u201cRemark the tricks of that most wary polypus,\n      Who always seems of the same colour and hue\n      As is the rock on which he lies;\u201d\n\nand Ion the tragedian, who wrote in his \u201cPh\u0153nix\u201d:\u2014\n\n      \u201cI hate the colour-changing polypus\n      Clinging with bloodless feelers to the rocks.\u201d\n\nIt was also the subject of a maxim equivalent to our \u201cWhen you\u2019re at\nRome, do as Rome does.\u201d A proverb cited by Clearchus runs thus:\u2014\n\n      \u201cMy son, my excellent Amphilocus,\n      Copy the shrewd device o\u2019 the polypus\n      And make yourself as like as possible\n      To those whose land you chance to visit.\u201d\n\nM. Hugo poetically alludes to the phosphorescent glow said to be\nemitted by the octopus in the dark:\u2014\n\n  \u201cBy night, and especially in the rutting season, it is\n  phosphorescent. Awaiting its spouse, it beautifies, kindles,\n  illuminates itself; and, from the height of some rock, it may be\n  perceived in the profound darkness beneath, blossoming in wan\n  irradiation\u2014a spectre sun.\u201d\n\nI have never been fortunate enough to witness the exhibition of this\nphosphorescence by the living octopus, although in dead specimens,\nas is the case with other marine animals, it becomes apparent as\nsoon as decomposition has commenced; but D\u2019Orbigny mentions it, and\nMr. Darwin says, \u201cI observed that one which I kept in the cabin\nwas slightly phosphorescent in the dark.\u201d[14] No doubt concerning\nthis can, therefore, exist; for a more competent observer, or more\naccurate recorder of facts than Mr. Darwin, never put pen to paper.\n\nIn his description of the manner in which the devil-fish absorbs its\nvictim, the author of \u201cThe Toilers of the Sea\u201d releases his ardent\nimagination from the few restraining ties by which it was bound to\nreality. He writes:\u2014\n\n  \u201cYou enter into the beast, the hydra incorporates itself with the\n  man: the man is amalgamated with the hydra. You become one. The\n  tiger can only devour you; the devil-fish inhales you. He draws\n  you to him, into him; and, bound and helpless, you feel yourself\n  slowly emptied into this frightful sac, which is a monster. To\n  be eaten alive is more than terrible; but to be drunk alive is\n  inexpressible.\u201d\n\nM. Hugo fortunately gives us the means of estimating the size of\nthe body of the octopus which attacked Gilliatt. He tells us that\nits arms were \u201cnearly a metre (thirty-nine inches) long.\u201d None of\nquite so great dimensions have, I believe, been found in the English\nChannel, but it is not impossible that such exist. Granting this,\nthe body of such an octopus would not be very much larger than a\nsoda-water bottle or a Florence-flask, such as olive-oil is sold in:\nand so the \u201chorrible bag, which is a monster,\u201d and into which you are\nto be inhaled and drawn alive, is but a small affair after all. The\nplain truth is, that the octopus and other cephalopods obtain and eat\ntheir food very much like the rapacious birds. They are the falcons\nof the sea. Some of them, like Onychoteuthis, strike their prey with\ntalons and suckers also; others, like the octopus, lay hold of it\nwith suckers alone; but they all tear the flesh with their beaks, and\nswallow and digest their food in as unromantic a fashion as does hawk\nor vulture.\n\nBut it is when the author indulges in what he is pleased to call\n\u201cphilosophical meditation\u201d on such animals that he arrives at the\nhighest point of hyperbolical mystery. He tells us:\u2014\n\n  \u201cThey are the chosen forms of evil. What are we to do in presence\n  of these blasphemies of creation against itself?... The possible\n  is a formidable matrix. Mystery concretes itself in monsters.\n  Portions of shades come forth from this block, the perpetual; tear\n  themselves, divide themselves, roll, float, condense, borrow from\n  the ambient blackness, undergo unknown polarizations, assume life,\n  compose for themselves who can tell what forms with obscurity, what\n  souls with miasma; and issue from them larv\u00e6, athwart the course of\n  vitality. They are as the darkness converted into beasts. Of what\n  use, for what purpose, are such creatures?\u2014relapse of the eternal\n  question! These animals are phantoms as much as monsters. They are\n  the amphibi\u00e6 of death, the visible extremities of black circles.\n  They mark the transition of our reality to another.\u201d\n\nTo analyse this is beyond my powers. One can only wonder what it\nall means. The language is sententious, and would, no doubt, be\nimpressive if it were not incomprehensible. It reminds one of Mr.\nMaccabe\u2019s \u201cWelsh sermon,\u201d which, delivered with solemn earnestness,\nrolls forth in grandly sonorous tones, but has not a word of Welsh\nor sense in it; or of the \u201cnonsense-problem\u201d which Mark Twain says\nwas propounded to him by Artemus Ward, and which seemed so full of\nthought and so clearly put that he blamed his \u201cwooden head\u201d because\nhe got into a hopeless tangle over it, until he found he had been\nentrapped into pondering over \u201ca string of plausibly worded sentences\nthat did not mean anything under the sun.\u201d\n\nLet us now take evidence concerning the dimensions to which the\noctopus is known to attain, and the degree in which it may be\nregarded as dangerous to man.\n\nAn octopus from our own coasts having arms two feet in length may\nbe considered a rather large specimen; and Dr. J. E. Gray, who was\nalways most kindly ready to place at the disposal of any sincere\ninquirer the vast store of knowledge laid up in his wonderful memory,\ntold me that \u201cthere is not one in the British museum which exceeds\nthis size, or which would not go into a quart pot, body, arms and\nall.\u201d The largest British specimen I have hitherto seen had arms 2\nft. 6 in. long.\n\nIf, however, the octopus seldom or never arrives at a length of arm\nof three feet on the northern coasts of France, we have sufficient\nevidence that it exceeds it on her southern borders, and along the\nSpanish and Italian shores of the Mediterranean.\n\nM. Verany, of Nice, an able naturalist, mentions having seen an\noctopus which weighed 33 lbs. and measured three metres from tip to\ntip of its outstretched arms. This would make the length of each\narm about four-and-a-half feet. A fisherman who noticed it affixed\nto the mole of the port of Nice had the hardihood to grasp it with\nhis hands, and made himself master of it, though not without much\ndifficulty.\n\nMr. Sylvanus Hanley, the well-known conchologist, and joint author\nwith Professor Edward Forbes of their standard work on the British\nMollusca, who passes every winter in Italy, has personally informed\nme that there are living in the harbour of Leghorn several octopods\nhaving arms at least four feet long, and as thick at their base as\na man\u2019s wrist. They lie with their bodies squeezed into, and hidden\nin, crevices in the stone-work of the mole and sea-wall, two or three\nof their arms extended and waving about in the water in readiness\nto seize passing prey, and the others holding fast to the blocks of\nstone. Mr. Hanley says that his son, who is a practised shore-hunter,\nand no coward, having frequent occasion, whilst in search of shells,\nto climb along a ledge of the rough masonry near the surface of the\nwater, just beneath which was the lurking-place of one of these great\ncreatures, was for some time afraid to pass the spot, in consequence\nof the animal\u2019s formidable appearance; for, as he approached, it\nwould thrust one or two of its disc-studded arms out of water, and\nstretch them towards him in a threatening manner, in its endeavours\nto reach him. The Italian divers and bathers are said to fear these\ncreatures.\n\nMy deceased friend John Keast Lord gives in his book, \u201cThe Naturalist\nin British Columbia,\u201d some particulars of the dimensions attained\nby the octopus in North-Western America. He writes:\u2014\u201cThe octopus,\nas seen on our own coasts (of England), although even here called a\n\u2018man-sucker\u2019 by the fishermen, is a mere Tom Thumb\u2014a tiny dwarf\u2014as\ncompared with the Brobdingnagian proportions he attains in the sunny\nbays and long inland canals of Vancouver\u2019s Island, as well as on the\nmainland. These places afford lurking-dens, strongholds, and natural\nsea-nurseries, where the octopus grows to an enormous size, fattens,\nand wages war with insatiable ferocity on all and everything it can\ncatch. The size, of course, varies. I have seen and measured the arm\nfive feet long, and as large at the base, where it joins the central\ndisc, as my wrist.\u201d He adds that the Indians, when spearing them for\nfood, take care to keep them at a distance till they have stabbed\nthem to death; knowing that if an octopus were once to get some of\nits huge arms over the side of the canoe, it could as easily haul it\nover as a child could upset a basket. But we know that a canoe is\nvery crank, and easily upset.\n\nI have often been asked whether an octopus of the ordinary size\ncan really be dangerous to bathers. Decidedly \u201cYes,\u201d in certain\nsituations. The octopus would not seize a man for the purpose of\ndevouring him; nor do I believe that the act would be prompted by a\ndeliberate intention to drown him, that his dead body might become\nan attractive bait for crabs, which are the animal\u2019s favourite food;\nbut rather by an instinctive desire to lay hold on anything moving\nwithin reach. The holding power of its numerous suckers is enormous.\nIt is almost impossible forcibly to detach it from its adhesion to a\nrock or the flat bottom of a tank; and if a large one happened to fix\none or more of its strong, tough arms on the leg of a swimmer whilst\nthe others held firmly to a rock, I doubt if the man could disengage\nhimself under water by mere strength, before being exhausted.\nFortunately, it can be made to relax its hold by grasping it tightly\nround the \u201cthroat\u201d (if I may so call it), and it may be well that\nthis should be known.\n\nThat men are occasionally drowned by these creatures is,\nunfortunately, a fact too well attested. In August, 1867, the _Genoa\nGazette_ mentioned that a carter of Sampierdarena, who had gone to\nbathe near the reef of San Andria, was seized by an octopus, which,\nin spite of all his efforts, dragged him under water and drowned him.\nNot one of the bathers who witnessed the occurrence dared to go to\nthe assistance of the unfortunate man.\n\nAdmiral Baillie Hamilton has kindly furnished me with some\ninformation on the subject. He tells me that in his time, many years\nago, it was an understood thing that there existed amongst the rocks\nof Gibraltar Bay an octopus of large size; and that during the last\nhalf-century one soldier at least of the garrison has been drowned\nwhilst bathing there by being grasped under water by one of these\n\u201cdevil-fishes.\u201d\n\nMajor Newsome, R.E., has also been so kind as to send me the\nfollowing description of an incident which happened to himself.\n\n\u201cIn the years 1856-7,\u201d he writes, \u201cI was stationed at East London,\na landing place about 900 miles from the Cape, up the east coast\nof Africa;\u2014I speak from memory, having no map at hand. It is a\nrock-bound coast with the exception of the river\u2019s mouth, which\nconsists of a small space of sand. The landing is most dangerous,\nand, conducted in surf boats, hatched over, is only then practicable\nin very calm weather. The ordinary practice amongst the officers,\nboth for comfort and saving of labour, is to bathe on the sea shore.\nSuch was my custom each morning. There was one quadrangular cavity\nin the rocks which, at low water and in calm weather, formed a very\ndesirable bath; but in rough weather, or at any time of tide except\nnear about low water, it was unapproachable. At the best of times it\nwas generally in a boil, and I have known a strong swimmer washed\nclean out of it on to the adjoining rocks, cut most grievously about\nthe body by barnacles. Nevertheless, we mostly took a dip there when\npracticable, on account of the freshness of the water. At other\ntimes the plunge took place in smooth pools left in the rocks by\nthe receding tide, which, though not quite so fresh, yet formed a\nvery acceptable bath. One morning I took a header into one of these\npools, which was, perhaps, 20 feet long, 7 to 8 feet wide, and deep\nin the centre\u20148 or 9 feet. As I swam from one end to the other, I\nwas horrified at feeling something around my ancle, and made for the\nside as speedily as I could. I thought at first it was only seaweed;\nbut as I landed, and trod with my foot on the rock, my disgust was\nheightened at feeling a fleshy and slippery substance under me. I\nwas, I confess, alarmed, and so, apparently, was the beast on whom\nI trod, and whom, I suspect, I thereby discomfited, as he quickly\ndetached himself and made again for the water. Some fellow-bathers,\nwhom I hailed, came to my assistance, and with a boat-hook, on to\nwhich the brute clung, he was, eventually, safely landed. When\nextended he would have filled a hoop of five feet diameter. The grasp\nof an ordinary sized octopus holding to a rock would, I suppose, in\nlat. 30\u00b0, be not less than 30 lb. to 40 lb. The floating power of a\nman is between 5 lb. and 6 lb., and it takes a very strong swimmer to\nconvey an ordinary fowling-piece, which weighs only 7 lb., across a\nriver, dry. Had I not kept mid-channel, I believe it would have been\na life-and-death struggle between myself and the beast on my ancle.\nIn the open water I was the best man; but near the bottom or sides,\nwhich I could not have reached with my arms, but which he could have\nreached with his, he would, certainly, have drowned me.\u201d\n\nMajor Newsome has not over-estimated the holding power of an octopus.\nOne in the Brighton Aquarium was seen dragging towards it a huge\nstone, from 40 lb. to 50 lb. in weight. It is not uncommon for one to\nhaul up to a ledge of rock, four or five feet from the bottom, two\nor three heavy oysters simultaneously; and it unfortunately happened\nin the early days of the Institution, and before precautions were\ntaken to avert such accidents, that an octopus drew up, by night, the\nwaste-valve of his tank, and let all the water run out of it; thus,\nby his strength, like Samson at Gaza, bringing death upon himself and\nall his companions.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE OCTOPUS OUT OF WATER.\n\n\nUntil by the establishment of aquaria opportunities were furnished\nof observing the habits of the octopus in captivity, very little was\nknown as to the truth or otherwise of the statement that it would\nsometimes voluntarily leave the water, and ramble on land in search\nof food. Professor Edward Forbes[15] says that, in the sudden falls,\nlasting not very long, of the sea-level, which occur from various\ncauses in the bays of the countries in and around the \u00c6gean, this\ncreature may be met with walking on the exposed shore; but he thinks\nit doubtful whether it ever wanders of its own choice above the usual\nwater-mark.\n\nAristotle affirms that it comes out of the sea and walks in stony\nplaces; and Pliny tells of an enormous polypus (octopus) which\nat Carteia, in Grenada\u2014an old and important Roman colony, near\nGibraltar\u2014used to come out of the sea at night, and carry off or\ndevour salted tunnies from the curing dep\u00f4ts on the shore; and adds\nthat the head of it, when it was at last killed, was found to weigh\n700lb. \u00c6lian records a similar incident, and describes his monster as\ncrushing in its arms the barrels of salt-fish to get at the contents.\nThese old writers seem to have aimed rather at making their histories\nsensational than at carefully investigating the credibility or the\ncontrary of the highly-coloured reports brought to them. They were,\nof course, gross exaggerations; but there is a substratum of truth in\nthem; and in the proceedings of an octopus in the Brighton Aquarium\nwe may recognise the living model of the bold, broad sketches from\nnature from which the old artists fancifully drew their showy but\nuntruthful pictures.\n\nIn May, 1873, it was found that some young lump-fish (_Cyclopterus\nlumpus_), were mysteriously disappearing from one of the tanks.\nAlmost daily there was a fresh and inexplicable vacancy in the\ngradually diminishing family circle, and morning after morning a\nhandbill might have been issued:\u2014\u201cMissing! Lost, stolen, or strayed,\na young \u2018lump-sucker,\u2019 rather below the middle size, and enormously\nstout; had on a bright blue coat, with several rows of buttons\non it, and a waistcoat of lighter colour. Whoever will give such\ninformation as shall lead to the discovery of the same, or produce\nsatisfactory evidence of his death, will relieve the troubled minds\nof the curators!\u201d \u201cWhat on earth can have become of them?\u201d \u201cWhere can\nthey be?\u201d were the questions each attendant asked in vain of another.\nIf they had died they would have been found in the tank, for there\nwere no crabs there that could have eaten them; they could not have\nburrowed in the shingle, for it was not deep enough; and, with their\nobesity of form, they could no more have leaped out of the tank than\nMr. Wardell\u2019s fat boy in \u201cPickwick\u201d could have jumped a five-barred\ngate. Here was a puzzle! One by one they were lost to sight, as\nregularly and unaccountably as pair after pair of Lieutenant Charles\nSeaforth\u2019s breeches disappeared from his bedroom at Tappington, as\nrelated in the \u201cIngoldsby Legends.\u201d\n\nOne morning, however, Mr. Lawler, one of the staff, on going to count\nour young friends, found an interloper amongst them. \u201cWho put this\noctopus in No. 27 tank?\u201d he inquired of the keepers. \u201cOctopus, sir?\nno one! Well, if he ain\u2019t bin and got over out of the next tank!\u201d And\nthis was just the fact.\n\nThe marauding rascal had occasionally issued from the water in his\ntank, and clambered up the rocks, and over the wall into the next\none; there he had helped himself to a young lump-fish, and, having\ndevoured it, returned demurely to his own quarters by the same route,\nwith well-filled stomach and contented mind. This was not very\ndifficult for him to accomplish, for the partition between the two\ntanks is only about a foot above the surface of the water. Having\naccidentally, or otherwise, discovered that there was a preserve\nof live stock suitable to his palate next door, he paid frequent\nnocturnal poaching visits to it, and, after clearing up every remnant\nof his meal, regularly slunk home before day-light; until, like most\ncriminals, becoming careless by frequently escaping detection, he, on\nthe last occasion, indulged at supper-time in an inordinate gorge,\nand slept under his neighbour\u2019s porch, instead of going home to bed.\n\nHis return homeward at daybreak was caused by no intelligent fear\nof his keeper, but by a perfectly natural instinct inherited from\nhis ancestors, namely, that of retiring during the day to his own\nfavourite den or lurking-place, as an ogre is supposed to ensconce\nhimself in his castle or cavern after having satiated his rapacious\nmaw in a successful foray. For it must be remembered that the\noctopus is nocturnal in its habits, and ordinarily hides itself as\nmuch as possible during the day, shrinking from the light, which is\napparently disagreeable to it: its wanderings in search of food,\ntherefore, generally take place at night.[16]\n\nAlthough I had once seen the octopus in question crawl out of the\nwater on to the rocks above the surface in the daytime, and had often\nwitnessed his activity during the dark hours, and the surprising\nrapidity of his progress by crawling or walking, he had not been seen\nto do all of which he was accused. Every opportunity was, therefore,\ngiven to him of continuing his incursions into his neighbours\u2019\ncompartment, and it was hoped that he would be caught in the act. So\nacute, however, are these creatures in their perceptions, so quick of\nsight, and so sensitive to the light of even a distant lantern, that\nour suspected pirate would not start on a buccaneering expedition\nwhilst anyone was cruising in the building. He seemed to know that he\nwas watched; and for about a week remained quietly at home. During\nthat time no more young lump-suckers were missing. Then he again\nbroke bounds, and, moreover, prevailed on one of his class-mates to\nfollow his bad example of going out on the loose.\n\nOne night these two individuals left their tank, and started in\nopposite directions on a voyage of discovery. One went east, the\nother went west; and, as if by preconcerted plan, neither was content\nmerely to cross the frontier and visit his nearest neighbours, but\nboth passed through, or over, one intervening tank, and settled\ndown amongst the tribes beyond. One of them found himself in a\nBrobdingnag of crabs\u2014a colony of giants too strong to be successfully\ninvaded even by an armada of octopods. If he had arrived at Lilliput\ninstead\u2014a tank inhabited by pigmy crustaceans\u2014he would soon have\ndepopulated it, by clutching in his hateful embrace more victims _per\ndiem_ than ever an unwelcome, foul-mouthed dragon of old demanded as\nhis daily dole of youths and maidens, to satisfy his inconvenient\npreference for their flesh as his daintiest dish. The other traveller\nfound his way into Lobsterdom, and putting on a bold front, proceeded\nto attack the chief. The lobster, though evidently alarmed, \u201cshowed\nfight,\u201d and the intruder was obliged to retreat, and seek refuge in\na cranny of the rock-work. Although the lobster which bore the brunt\nof the attack was a very large one, I was at the time surprised that\nit so decisively vanquished the invader as to save from destruction\nthe other smaller specimens of its kind, which were its companions.\nFor it is an old notion, still generally believed by fishermen, that\nif an octopus approaches a \u201cpot,\u201d or \u201cstalker,\u201d in which are lobsters\nthat have been entrapped, they will cast off their claws, and become\nliterally sick from fright.\n\nIn his pleasant book, \u201cSub-tropical Rambles,\u201d Mr. Nicholas Pike,\nUnited States Consul at Mauritius, mentions that advantage is there\ntaken by the native fishermen of the antipathy and instinctive fear\nwith which the crustacea regard their enemy, the octopus (called\nby the Creoles, the \u201courite,\u201d by the European residents, the\n\u201ccat-fish,\u201d), to lure the former from their holes. A long arm of the\noctopus is suspended at the entrance, and no sooner does the lobster\nor cray-fish catch sight of the dreaded weapon covered with suckers,\nthan away he rushes in terror, and is soon caught by a noose of split\nbamboo firmly fixed over his tail.\n\nIn localities where the octopus abounds, the crustacea probably learn\nto regard it as an enemy to be dreaded, but this is certainly not\nthe case with those which I have had opportunities of observing. The\ncommon shore crabs on which this animal is habitually fed in the\nAquarium have no knowledge of their danger in its presence. When\ntossed into the tank they frequently run towards the monster who is\nwaiting to devour them, and even scramble on to and over his back. It\nmay be that, as in countries previously unvisited by man the birds\nand beasts, unacquainted with his destructive powers and carnivorous\nhabits, show no fear of him at first sight, so the crabs and lobsters\nat Brighton so rarely see an octopus in their native haunts that they\nhave not learned to recognise their deadly foe.\n\nAnother amusing illustration of the pedestrian powers of the\noctopus occurred some time afterwards at the Brighton Aquarium. In\nanticipation of the arrival of some literary and scientific friends,\nI had transferred an octopus from its tank to a large vase of water\nin my private room, that they might be able to examine it minutely. I\nleft it for a quarter of an hour, and, on my return with them, found\nit toppling and sprawling along on the carpet. It had got out of the\nvase, tumbled off the table on to the floor, and reached the further\nside of the room. Of course, it was immediately replaced in the\nwater, and seemed none the worse for its singular promenade.\n\nAn incident described by Mr. Thomas Beale, surgeon of a South Sea\nwhaling ship, in his \u201cHistory of the Sperm Whale,\u201d has been quoted\nover and over again, not merely as proving that the octopus can quit\nthe water, but as an illustration of its ferocity. It should rather\nbe cited as an instance of unintentional exaggeration by a generally\nfair observer. Mr. Beale says:\u2014\u201cWhile upon the Bonin Islands,\nsearching for shells, which had just been left by the receding tide,\nI was much astonished at seeing at my feet a most extraordinary\nanimal crawling towards the surf, which had only just left it. I had\nnever seen one like it under such circumstances before; it therefore\nappeared the more remarkable. It was creeping on its eight legs,\nwhich, from their soft and flexible nature, bent considerably under\nthe weight of its body, so that it was lifted by the efforts of its\ntentacula only a small distance from the rocks. It appeared much\nalarmed at seeing me, and made every effort to escape, while I was\nnot much in the humour to endeavour to capture so ugly a customer,\nwhose appearance excited a feeling of disgust, not unmixed with fear.\nI, however, endeavoured to prevent its career, by pressing on one of\nits legs with my foot, but although I made use of considerable force\nfor that purpose, its strength was so great that it several times\nquickly liberated its member, in spite of all the efforts I could\nemploy in this way on wet, slippery rocks. I now laid hold of one\nof the tentacles with my hand, and held it firmly, so that the limb\nappeared as if it would be torn asunder by our united strength. I\nsoon gave it a powerful jerk, wishing to disengage it from the rocks\nto which it clung, so forcibly by its suckers, which it effectually\nresisted; but the moment after, the apparently enraged animal lifted\nits head with its large eyes projecting from the middle of its body,\nand letting go its hold on the rocks, sprang upon my arm, which I\nhad previously bared to the shoulder, and clung with its suckers to\nit with great power, endeavouring to get its beak, which I could now\nsee between the roots of its arms, in a position to bite. A sensation\nof horror pervaded my whole frame when I found this monstrous animal\nhad affixed itself so firmly upon my arm. Its cold, slimy grasp was\nextremely sickening, and I immediately called aloud to the captain\nwho was also searching for shells at some distance, to come and\nrelease me from my disgusting assailant. He quickly arrived, and\ntaking me down to the boat, during which I was employed in keeping\nthe beak away from my hand, quickly released me by destroying my\ntormentor with the boat-knife, when I disengaged it by portions at a\ntime. This animal must have measured across its expanded arms about\nfour feet, while its body was not larger than a large clenched hand.\nIt was that kind of sepia called by whalers \u2018rock-squid.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt was neither a \u201csepia\u201d nor a \u201csquid,\u201d but an octopus of very\nmoderate size. The enraged animal _lifting its head and springing_ on\nMr. Beale\u2019s arm is very sensational, but very inaccurate; and it is\nsimply impossible that he could have seen the beak _whilst the animal\nwas endeavouring to get it into position to bite him_. The tragic\nkilling of his \u201ctormentor\u201d with the boat-knife, and disengagement\nof its arms, bit by bit, was quite unnecessary. If he had grasped\nit firmly round the neck it would have instantly let go its hold.\nAristotle was well aware of this, and it may be well for bathers to\nremember it.\n\nI have frequently allowed an octopus to fix itself upon, and crawl\nover, my bare arm. It can always be detached in this manner. None\nhave ever attempted to bite me. But although it is \u201cnothing when\nyou are used to it,\u201d it is not pleasant to have a stranger, of\nwhose proclivities you know nothing, fasten himself upon you with\nsuch demonstration of attachment. To have the long, cold, damp arms\nof an octopus writhing and twining about one\u2019s wrist and hand,\nand fastening its hundreds of sucking cups all over them, gives a\nsingularly uncomfortable sensation\u2014the kind of feeling most persons\nwould experience on grasping a handful of lively snakes\u2014so Mr. Beale\nmay be excused for allowing his terror to excite his imagination and\novercome his judgment.\n\nThe fishermen of the Mediterranean have a summary method of killing\nthe octopus or cuttle. They turn back the arms over the head, and\nseizing the latter with their teeth compress it in the region of the\nbrain. Death is instantaneous.\n\nM. Moquin Tandon, in his \u201cWorld of the Sea,\u201d alluding to the peril\nto swimmers of contact with the octopus, gives a singular recipe for\nrendering the creature harmless. He says: \u201cDr. Franklin found that\na few drops of vinegar on its back at once persuaded it to release\nits hold.\u201d So, too, would a red-hot poker, no doubt; and it would\nbe almost as easy to apply the one as the other under water: for,\nsupposing that swimmers were in the habit of carrying cruet bottles\nslung round their necks, considerable ingenuity would be required\nto enable one to pour a few drops of vinegar on the back of an\noctopus which was holding him by the ancle at some distance below the\nsurface. To put vinegar on an octopus, as to put salt on a bird\u2019s\ntail, you must first catch it. I have somewhere read of a Dutch\npedlar who sold a man a liquid for the extermination of fleas. \u201cAnd\nhow do you use it?\u201d inquired his customer. \u201cKetch te flea, and drop\nvon little drop into his mout,\u201d answered the pedlar. \u201cWhy!\u201d exclaimed\nthe purchaser, \u201cI could kill it in half the time, by crushing it.\u201d\n\u201cVell,\u201d said the Dutchman, thoughtfully, \u201cdat is a goot vay, too.\u201d\n\nIn August, 1873, I received from Dr. R. Brisco Owen, of Haulfre,\nBeaumaris, a fellow of the Linnean Society since 1824, the following\ncommunication respecting octopods quitting the water, and their\ncapability of rapid progress on land:\u2014\n\n\u201cI forward you a description of a curious species of octopod which I\nonce met with in Torres Straits; but at the Brighton Aquarium, last\nmonth, I was examining the octopus there, and they struck me as being\nquite a different species to mine, their eyes especially different;\nthe eyes of mine were full and open, as beautiful as the eye of the\nowl, which they resembled. It was in the month of September, 1843,\nthat I landed in Blackwood\u2019s Bay, on my passage through Torres\nStraits from Sydney to Madras. The ship on board of which I was a\npassenger was the _Stratheden_, Captain Howlett. On casting anchor in\nthe bay, having cleared this most dangerous strait, which separates\nthe northernmost point of Australia from New Guinea, a small party,\nincluding the captain, took boat and were rowed ashore, a distance\nof a good mile. Our passage in the boat was over a splendid field\nof coral, the water not being above a yard deep, and as clear as\ncrystal. Landing on the shore of Blackwood\u2019s Bay, our party separated\nfor the purpose of exploration; the captain pointing out to us the\nnecessity of our being punctual as to time, not wandering too far,\nand observing the position of our boat for our return. The shore\nwas an extensive flat, hard and clean to walk on, with much seaweed\ngrowing on it. Having proceeded a considerable distance, and lost\nsight of my companions, great was my surprise to see an object start\nup suddenly, close to my feet, moving very rapidly, and evidently\nwishing to avoid me, and to get to the sea. After chasing it a\nshort time, I was satisfied that the creature was an octopus, which\nI was desirous of capturing alive, and without injury. Its eyes,\nwhich were round, large, and wide open, descriptive of the greatest\nterror, struck me forcibly. Its speedy flight and wonderful powers of\nlocomotion, I cannot account for: it appeared to me surprising that\na creature with such a flexible structure as its tentacles, could\noutrun me. Our chase lasted so long that both pursuer and pursued\nwere frequently obliged to halt from sheer exhaustion. At length,\nfinding that I could not capture the animal, I flung my stick at it\nwith force, and knocked it over, killing it with one blow, and, to\nmy sorrow, ruining it as a specimen. On picking up the octopus, it\nwas quite collapsed. The tentacles were about two feet long only. I\nam not surprised to have found this creature left by the receding\ntide; as it had plenty of seaweed, with little pools of water, to\nprotect and shelter it, and abundance of the sea-slug (_Holothuria\nedulis_), which no doubt it feeds on\u2014fine specimens of which I met\nwith, that would have suited the dainty palate of an alderman! I\ntrust that credit may be given me for the veracity of this account.\nI have no object in deception. I have here stated what occurred to\nme; and being able to refer to my journal, my memory is freshened,\nthough the circumstances made such an impression that I have often\nthought the matter over, and sought in books for confirmation of what\nI witnessed, but without success.\u201d\n\nA similar instance was related in a letter to one of the morning\npapers (I think, the _Daily Telegraph_), about eight months\npreviously; and the statement then appeared to me to be an attempt to\nhoax the public; for it seems impossible that an octopus can travel\nover the ground at the pace described. But it is not to be supposed\nthat a gentleman of Dr. Owen\u2019s age and profession would volunteer\ninformation intentionally erroneous. Among the details given by him\nis one which is difficult to understand. The genus _Octopus_ is\nespecially characterised by the smallness of the eye. This is larger\nin _Philoxenis_ and _Argonauta_; but in all of the family the iris\nis oblong, and not round. In the calamaries it is larger, and always\ncircular; but the octopods alone of the cephalopoda, are able, by the\ndisposition of their arms, to walk, or progress, on dry land, or to\nreturn to the water if cast upon the shore.\n\nMarvellous as the above narrative may appear to the reader (and\nI confess I so regard it), it has been collaterally confirmed by\nan officer of high rank in the Royal Engineers, whose veracity is\nunquestionable, and who, without previous knowledge of Dr. Brisco\nOwen\u2019s communication, related to me, first verbally, and afterwards,\nat my request, in writing, a similar adventure which happened to\nhimself.\n\n\u201cWhen at Bermuda,\u201d he said, \u201cin 1868, whilst sitting on a rock near\nthe water, I saw a curious instance of the power of locomotion of\nthese beasts. A small octopus emerged from the water, apparently\nin great terror: in two seconds he was followed by a larger one,\nevidently in chase. The little fellow might have been ten inches\nover all, the larger one about eighteen, or perhaps twenty, inches.\nTheir mode of progression was most singular: in position something\nlike the \u2018arabs\u2019 of the London streets, but not turning. Five arms\nseemed to be used in walking, or, rather, progressive motion; the\nremaining three being reserved for seizing. I should think the rate\nat which both animals went was as fast as a man could possibly walk,\n_i.e._, between five and six miles an hour. A larger octopus would\nundoubtedly cause a man following it to run, unless it chose to turn\nand face him.\u201d\n\nBoth of these accounts of the locomotive powers of the octopus are\nperfectly clear and definite; and, therefore, although we may say,\nwith Horatio,\u2014\u201cThis is wondrous strange!\u201d we must either entirely\ndisbelieve two credible witnesses, or apply to the case the aphorism\nof Hamlet:\u2014\u201cThere are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt\nof in our philosophy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nNEW LIMBS FOR OLD ONES.\n\n\nIt is a not uncommon occurrence that when an octopus is caught, it\nis found to have one or more of its arms shorter than the rest, and\nshowing marks of having been amputated, and of the formation of a\nnew growth from the old cicatrix. Several such specimens have been\nbrought to the Brighton Aquarium; one of which was particularly\ninteresting. Two of its arms had evidently been bitten off about\nfour inches from the base; and out from the end of each healed\nstump (which, in proportion to the length of the limb, was as if\na man\u2019s arm had been amputated half-way between the shoulder and\nelbow) grew a slender little piece of newly-formed arm, about as\nlarge as a lady\u2019s stiletto, or a small button-hook\u2014in fact, just the\nequivalent of worthy Captain Cuttle\u2019s iron hook, which did duty for\nhis lost hand. It was not a specimen of the remarkable _hectocotylus_\ndevelopment of the arm of the male octopus which takes place during\nthe breeding season, but an illustrative example of the repair and\nrestoration of a mutilated limb.[17]\n\nThis reparative power is possessed by some other animals, of which\nthe starfishes and crustacea are the most familiar instances.\nThe lobster and the crab, if they find themselves in depressing\ncircumstances, are addicted to malingering. They do not go so far as\nto commit suicide; but, stopping short of that, perpetrate a kind\nof demi-semi-self-immolation. In a sudden passion of fear or anger,\nthey will sometimes fling off one or both of their large claws, and\nthat which they thus do impulsively and in haste, they repent and\nrepair at leisure\u2014like the intemperate man we sometimes read of in\nthe police news, who goes home and smashes the crockery, and, when he\nis able to reflect on his folly, is glad to make good the damage as\nquickly and as quietly as he can.\n\nThe starfishes, too, as the common \u201cfive-finger\u201d (_Uraster_), and\nthe brittle-star (_Ophiocoma_),\u2014which by-the-by, is not half as\nbrittle as has been supposed\u2014can throw off their limbs in a pet, and\ngrow them again. But in both of these the act is voluntary, and the\ndismemberment complete. If the claw of a lobster or crab be severed,\nor wounded in any part of its length, the animal will bleed, and\nwaste, and die of the consequent exhaustion. I have noticed that,\nespecially in the spiny lobster or sea cray-fish (_Palinurus_), the\nblood flows freely many hours after death, and that when I have had\noccasion to remove the abdominal and caudal leaf-like appendages of\na dead cray-fish for dissection and microscopical examination, the\nblood and serum have poured from the part where the cut has been\nmade, and thickened on the stone slab in a firm, gelatinous sheet, of\nthe colour and consistency of guava jelly.\n\nThe only joint from which new growth can start in the crustacea is\nthat connected with the body. The whole limb must be got rid of. The\noctopus, on the contrary, is incapable of voluntary dismemberment,\nbut has the faculty of reproducing, as an outgrowth from the old\nstump, any portion of an arm (or leg) which may have been lost by\nmisadventure. I say \u201carm or leg,\u201d for one hardly knows which these\neight appendages should be called. If they are legs, the octopus\ncan hold on with them as tightly as the \u201cold man of the sea\u201d gripped\nSinbad the Sailor, and use them as dexterously as the \u201carmless girl,\u201d\nwho cuts out with hers the pretty paper designs which she sells to\nvisitors. If they are arms, he can walk on them, head downwards,\nunder water, more cleverly than the most agile monkey or street arab.\nSo we may call them either or both.\n\nReturning to our mutilated octopus;\u2014we transfer him from the tank in\nwhich he had been temporarily placed to the wet pavement, that we may\nbetter observe his movements when crawling. He scrambles and shuffles\naway, and makes the best use he can of the jury-rigging he has fitted\non to his old stumps. As he does so, his keen eyes, mounted on little\nhillocks, peer furtively around him; and while he sidles off from\nhis too admiring persecutors, he casts a doubtful, half-frightened,\nhalf-defiant glance behind him, like a schoolboy, timid in the dark,\nwho fancies a ghost is following him. His cousin the cuttle-fish\n(_Sepia_) has an eye, round like that of an owl, which stares you\nout of countenance, and puzzles you by its immobility; the pupil of\nthe eye of an octopus is like that of a tiger turned half round. The\nperpendicularly-elongated pupil of the cat gleams with hot ferocity:\nthe calm, cunning gaze of the octopus from out the narrow horizontal\nslit of its compressed eyelids freezes by its cold cruelty.\n\nNow, let us try to conjecture the \u201c_fons et origo mali_\u201d\u2014the source\nof the injury of the two lopped arms.\n\nThere lingers still amongst the fishermen of the Mediterranean a very\nancient belief that the octopus when pushed by hunger will gnaw and\ndevour portions of its arms. Aristotle knew of it, and positively\ncontradicted it; but a fallacy once planted is hard to eradicate. You\nmay cut it down, and apparently destroy it, root and branch, but its\nseeds are scattered abroad, and spring up elsewhere and in unexpected\nplaces. Accordingly we find Oppian, more than five centuries later,\ndisseminating the same old notion, and comparing this habit of the\nanimal with that of the bear obtaining nutriment from his paws by\nsucking them during his hibernation.\n\n      When wintry skies o\u2019er the black ocean frown,\n      And clouds hang low with ripen\u2019d storms o\u2019er-grown,\n      Close in the shelter of some vaulted cave\n      The soft-skinn\u2019d prekes their porous bodies save.\n      But forc\u2019d by want, while rougher seas they dread,\n      On their own feet, necessitous, are fed.\n      But when returning spring serenes the skies,\n      Nature the growing parts anew supplies.\n      Again on breezy sands the roamers creep,\n      Twine to the rocks, or paddle in the deep.\n      Doubtless the God whose will commands the seas,\n      Whom liquid worlds and wat\u2019ry natives please,\n      Has taught the fish by tedious wants opprest\n      Life to preserve and be himself the feast.\n\nThe fact is, that the larger predatory fishes regard an octopus as\nvery acceptable food, and there is no better bait for many of them\nthan a portion of one of its arms. Some of the cetacea also are very\nfond of them, and whalers have often reported that when a \u201cfish\u201d (as\nthey call it) is struck it disgorges the contents of its stomach,\namongst which they have noticed parts of the arms of cuttle-fishes\nwhich, judging from the size of their limbs, must have been very\nlarge specimens. The food of the sperm whale consists largely of\nthe gregarious squids, and the presence in spermaceti of their\nundigested beaks is accepted as a test of its being genuine. That old\nfish-reptile, the Ichthyosaurus, also, preyed upon them; and portions\nof the horny rings of their suckers were discovered in its coprolites\nby Dean Buckland. Amongst the worst enemies of the octopus in British\nhome-waters is the conger. They are both rock-dwellers, and if the\nvoracious fish come upon his cephalopod neighbour unseen, he makes a\nmeal of him, or, failing to drag him from his hold, bites off as much\nof one or two of his arms as he can conveniently obtain. The conger,\ntherefore, is generally the author of the injury which the octopus\nhas been unfairly accused of inflicting on itself.\n\nThe Curator of the Havre Aquarium describes an attack by congers on\nan octopus which he had thrown into their tank. As soon as the latter\ntouched the bottom it examined every corner of the stone-work. The\nmoment it perceived a conger it seemed to feel instinctively the\ndanger which menaced it, and endeavoured to conceal its presence by\nstretching itself along a rock, the colour of which it immediately\nassumed. Finding this useless, and seeing that it was discovered, it\nchanged its tactics, and shot backward, in quick retreat, leaving\nbehind it a long black trail of turbid water, formed by the discharge\nof its ink. Then it fixed itself to a rock, with all its arms\nsurrounding and protecting its body, and presenting on all exposed\nsides a surface furnished with suckers. In this position it awaited\nthe attack of its enemies. A conger approached, searched with its\nsnout for a vulnerable place, and, having found one, seized with its\nteeth a mouthful of the living flesh. Then, straightening itself out\nin the water, it turned round and round with giddy rapidity, until\nthe arm was, with a violent wrench, torn away from the body of the\nvictim. Each bite of a conger cost the unfortunate creature a limb,\nand, at length, nothing remained but its dismembered body, which was\nfinally devoured;\u2014some dog-fishes, attracted by the fray, partaking\nof the feast.\n\nI have always refused to permit so shocking a scene to be repeated\nat the Brighton Aquarium. The Havre experiment has taught us all\nthat is to be learned from it concerning the mode of attack of the\nconger, and the octopod\u2019s strategy of defence. That the flesh of the\nlatter is a favourite food of congers, I have repeatedly proved by\nwatching the eagerness with which they will rend limb from limb, and\ndevour the body of a dead octopus to which I sometimes treat them\nafter removing such portions as may be required for dissection and\npreservation.\n\nAn octopus is sometimes, though rarely, severely injured in battle by\none of its own species. On one occasion when a newly-arrived specimen\nwas put in a tank with others which had dwelt there for some time,\nthese old habitu\u00e9s made a fierce onslaught on it, and the new-comer\nhad one of its arms torn away. It would certainly have been killed\nif one of the attendants had not rescued and removed it. Aristotle\nsays that the octopus does not eat its congeners, and D\u2019Orbigny\nendorses his opinion. Nevertheless one instance of this cannibalism\nhas occurred in the Brighton Aquarium; and in that on the Boulevard\nMontmartre, Paris, in 1867, two octopuses fought and the victor\ndevoured the vanquished.\n\nAnother reparation or renewal by the octopods of worn or injured\nportions of their limbs is the frequent shedding of the outer skins\nof their suckers, the epidermis of the flat surface of them, by which\nthey adhere, and travel from place to place. These cast-off skins may\ngenerally be seen floating in the water in their tanks in the form of\nvery thin, filmy discs, with a hole in the centre. Seeking a reason\nfor this, it appears to me that these, their feet-coverings, become\nworn by crawling and climbing over the rough rocks, and that it is a\nprovision of nature for the renewal of the holding surface of their\nsuckers, necessary for the production of a sufficient vacuum, and the\nvery best method by which the repairs of the soles of their boots\ncan be \u201cneatly executed.\u201d And, as their feet increase in size with\ntheir general growth, it may also be that they outgrow their shoes as\nquickly as children do theirs, and that, therefore, they cast them\nperiodically when they require larger ones, as the barnacles do their\nplumes, the crustacea their shells, and snakes their skins.\n\nSometimes the whole shoe is thrown off; at others only the sole. When\nthe octopus desires to get rid of this worn skin it curls its arms\ntogether close to its body in a peculiar manner, and rubs them one\nagainst another with a rapid motion of coiling and uncoiling which\nsuggests the action of \u201cSir Jacob,\u201d the father of Thomas Hood\u2019s \u201cMiss\nKilmansegg,\u201d when he\n\n                \u201cIn the fulness of joy and hope,\n      Seemed washing his hands with invisible soap\n      In imperceptible water.\u201d\n\nIt appears to delight in thus cleaning itself and giving itself a\ngood rubbing and scrubbing all over, as a strong man enjoys his\n\u201cmatutinal tub\u201d and a hearty rub with a rough towel afterwards; or\nas a bird, with evident pleasure, preens its feathers, and bathes in\nwater or sand. This cleansing process has been erroneously supposed\nto indicate sexual excitement.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nSPAWNING OF THE OCTOPUS.\n\n\nThe first instance of the octopus spawning in an aquarium in this\ncountry occurred at Brighton on the 19th of June, 1873. A large\nfemale octopus, caught at Dieppe, was brought in on the 26th of\nthe preceding April, and, immediately on her arrival, a fine male\npreviously received from Mevagissey conceived a liking for her, and\nevidently rejoicing in the good fortune which had provided for him\na suitable mate, paid her such assiduous court, that his addresses\nwere quickly accepted. It was a case of \u201clove at first sight,\u201d and\nin three days the captive damsel was wooed and won. The event above\nmentioned was, therefore, not unexpected. Our octopus, fortunately\nselected as a suitable site for her nest, a recess in the rock-work,\nclose to the front glass of the tank, so that her movements could\nbe easily observed. Her body just filled the entrance to it, and\nshe further strengthened its defences by dragging to the mouth of\nher cavern two dozen or more of living oysters, and piling them one\non another to form a breast-work or barricade, behind which she\nensconced herself. Over this rampart she peered with her great,\nsleepless, prominent eyes; her two foremost arms extended beyond it,\ntheir extremities coiling and writhing in ceaseless motion, as if\nprepared to strike out right and left at any intruder. She seemed\nnever to be taken unawares, and was no more to be caught napping than\na cunning middy \u201ccaulking it\u201d in the middle watch. Couchant, and on\nthe \u201clook-out,\u201d like Sir Edwin Landseer\u2019s lions, she barred with her\nbody the passage to her den, ready to defend it against all foes.\nHer companions evidently felt that it was dangerous to approach an\nexcited mother guarding her offspring, and none ventured to go within\narm\u2019s length of her. Even her forlorn husband was made to keep his\ndistance. If he dared to approach with intent to whisper soft words\nof affection into his partner\u2019s ear, or to look with paternal pride\non the newly-born infants, the lady roused herself with menacing\nair, and slowly rose till her head over-topped the barrier; by an\ninstantaneous expansion of the pigment vesicles of the skin, a dark\nflush of anger tinged the whole surface of the body; the two upper\narms were uncoiled and stretched out to their utmost length towards\nthe interloper; and the poor snubbed, hen-pecked father, finding\nhis nose put out of joint by the precious baby, which belonged as\nmuch to himself as to its fussy mother, invariably shrank from their\nformidable contact, and sorrowfully and sullenly retreated, to muse,\nperhaps, on the brief duration of cephalopodal marital happiness. All\nhis fellows in the tank knew that he was in bad humour, and took care\nto keep out of his way. As soon as they saw him coming towards them\nthey gathered their arms close together in a straight line, and swam\noff rapidly, tail first, to the further side of the tank.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 6. Eggs of the Octopus. (_O. vulgaris_)]\n\nThe eggs of the octopus, when first laid, are small, oval,\ntranslucent granules, resembling little grains of rice, not quite an\neighth of an inch long. They grow along and around a common stalk,\nto which every egg is separately attached, as grapes form part of\na bunch. Each of the elongated bunches is affixed by a glutinous\nsecretion to the surface of a rock or stone (never to seaweed, as has\nbeen erroneously stated), and hangs pendent by its stalk in a long\nwhite cluster, like a magnified catkin of the filbert, or, to use\nAristotle\u2019s simile, like the fruit of the white alder. The length and\nnumber of these bunches varies according to the age and condition of\nthe parent. Those produced by a young octopus are seldom more than\nabout three inches long, and from twelve to twenty in number; but a\nfull-grown female will deposit from forty to fifty of such clusters,\neach about five inches in length. I have counted the eggs of which\nthese clusters are composed, and find that there are about a thousand\nin each: so that a large octopus produces in one laying, usually\nextended over three days, a progeny of from 40,000 to 50,000. Our\nbrooding French octopus, when undisturbed, would pass one of her arms\nbeneath the hanging bunches of her eggs, and dilating the membrane on\neach side of it into a boat-shaped hollow, would gather and receive\nthem in it as in a trough or cradle, exhibiting in its general shape\nand outline a remarkable similarity to those of the argonaut, or\n\u201cpaper-nautilus,\u201d with the eggs of which octopod its own are, as I\nhave already explained, almost identical in form and appearance.\nThen she would caress and gently rub them, occasionally turning\ntowards them the mouth of her flexible exhalent and locomotor-tube,\nlike the nozzle of a fireman\u2019s hose-pipe, so as to direct upon them\na jet of the excurrent water. I believe that the object of the\nsyringing process is to free the eggs from parasitic animalcules,\nand possibly to prevent the growth of conferva, which I have found\nrapidly overspread those removed from her attention. Week after week,\nshe continued to attend to them with the most watchful and assiduous\ncare, seldom leaving them for an instant except to take food, which,\nwithout a brief abandonment of her position, would be beyond her\nreach. Aristotle asserted that while the female is incubating she\ntakes no food. This is incorrect.\n\nIn the tank with our specimen were seven others of her species, and\nto supply them with food about five-and-twenty living shore crabs\n(_Carcinus m\u00e6nas_) were daily tossed into it. Although she so seldom\nleft her nest, she generally obtained her share of these, and would\nseize with her suckers, and draw towards her, sometimes, three at a\ntime, one by each of three of her arms. Their shells were soon broken\nand torn apart by her powerful beak, and when she had devoured the\ncontents the hard _d\u00e9bris_ was cast out of her den.\n\nBut although the old naturalist of Stageira was mistaken in supposing\nthat the female octopus does not take food during the period of the\ndevelopment of her ova, he was right in believing that her anxiety\nfor her progeny, and her unremitting care of them, tell injuriously\nupon her health. A brooding octopus shows signs of diminished\nbodily vigour, as a sitting hen bird loses flesh whilst hatching\nher eggs. Her respiration at times becomes laboured. When the water\nis inhaled (I use the word intentionally, for the animal _breathes_\nthe oxygen contained in it) at the open part of the mantle-sac, the\nsiphon-tube, at its orifice, is often drawn forcibly inward; and when\nthe pair of bellows of the body close, the same opening of the tube\nis distended to its fullest capacity by the out-rush of the exhaled\nwater. Repeated observations have shown that it not unfrequently\nhappens that the vital powers of the octopus are so exhausted by her\nprotracted maternal cares that she dies when relieved by the hatching\nof her eggs from the necessity of further vigils. Many also die in\nthe act of spawning, or when distended with ova.\n\nTo return to our mother octopus at Brighton,\u2014at the end of the fifth\nweek from the deposit of her ova she began to exhibit considerable\nirritation and restlessness, in consequence of the annoyance she\nexperienced from visitors trying to rouse her to movement, or to\nfrighten her from her eggs, by knocking at the glass with coins\nor sticks, and flouting pocket-handkerchiefs in front of her. I\nfound that on some of these occasions, in her excitement, whilst\nprotecting her eggs from the supposed danger, she had torn away the\nlower portion of some of the clusters, and that their number was\nconsiderably diminished. It therefore became necessary to screen\nher from the public gaze. Fearing also that, notwithstanding the\ncessation of the interruption to which she had been subjected, she\nmight by her over-fussiness destroy the remainder; or that even if\nher progeny were safely born, they might hatch out unperceived, and\nthus our hopes be frustrated and an important observation lost,\nI decided on removing some of them from the exhibition tank, and\nplacing them in a smaller one in the laboratory, where they could be\nclosely watched. The water was therefore run off till a depth of only\nabout six inches remained; and one of the catkin-like bunches of eggs\nwas carefully detached. To do this neatly, without disturbing the\nother clusters, was not so easy as it might be supposed; for not only\ndid the hen octopus guard the entrance to her recess, and require\ncareful handling, but the old male also was pugnacious. As soon as\nhe espied his keeper in the tank, he strode forth from his corner\ntowards him, looking exceedingly savage, and making a demonstration\nof attack which would have frightened a novice, and led a looker-on\nto believe that the intruder was about to be the centre figure in\na Laocoon group of writhing, twining octopods, and to suffer the\nfate of _Clubin_, or to escape only after a terrible combat, like\n_Gilliatt_, in M. Victor Hugo\u2019s novel. But the old fellow\u2019s bark was\nworse than his bite, for on a bare arm being presented to him in the\nshallow water, he made no attempt to hold or bite it, but merely\nscrambled and crawled harmlessly over it.\n\nBy the removal of a portion of these eggs I hoped, also, that an\ninteresting question concerning their development might be finally\nanswered. Aristotle had been understood to affirm that the parent\noctopus \u201cincubates\u201d her eggs. I had always expressed very decidedly\nmy opinion, derived from previous experiments on the eggs of the\ncuttle-fish and squid (_Sepia_ and _Loligo_) that, the ova once\nimpregnated, no incubation by the parent is required or takes place\nin a sense equivalent to that of a fowl developing a chick by the\nwarmth of its body; but that her unremitting attention to them is\nsolely for the purpose of protecting them from injury, keeping them\nfree from animal and vegetable parasites, and preventing their being\ndevoured by fishes, or members of her own tribe\u2014possibly by their own\nfather. If I had felt myself free to act according to my inclination,\nI should, at once, have removed a larger number of the eggs; but in\nmatters concerning which nothing is positively known, and everything\nhas to be learned, caution is requisite. There was good reason\nfor hesitation, when care in the conduct of the observation might\nremove the doubts of centuries. The first thing to be ascertained\nwas\u2014Had the ova been properly fecundated\u2014did they contain, each,\na living embryo? The microscope answered \u201cYes.\u201d Under a low power\na young octopus was seen moving freely in the fluid contained in\neach transparent granule, the bright orange-brown colour in the\npigment cells of its skin flashing, dying out, and re-appearing in\nanother place, like sparks in tinder. And I was astonished to see\nthat the little creature within the unbroken membrane was already\nendowed with the power of assimilating its colour to that of its\nsurroundings. When light was reflected upon its surface, and through\nits translucent body, from a piece of white paper laid on the mirror\nof the instrument, it became pallid and colourless: on a bronze\npenny being substituted for the paper, it assumed a darker hue; and\n(which was still more remarkable) on its being disturbed by a slight\ncompression or agitation of the egg, its surface became suffused with\nthe red flush of anger and irritation which characterises the adult\nunder provocation.\n\nIt having been seen that many of the eggs left in their original\nposition had been bruised by the mother octopus, and that there were\nblack marks on the stone beneath them, betokening the presence of\ndecomposition, I was anxious to remove the remainder from her; but,\nfor the reason above mentioned, amongst others, I considered it\nwould be prudent to assure myself that the eggs transferred to the\nsmaller tank retained their vitality. Seeing, at the expiration of\nfour days, that the young animals within them were as lively as ever,\nand progressing so rapidly that their escape from the egg might soon\nbe expected, I had the larger tank partly emptied again, for the\npurpose of taking from the nest any that might still be uninjured. It\nwas found, however, that those which had not been torn away by the\nparent had been squeezed by her between herself and the rock-work,\nand were consequently dead, only a very few showing signs of having\nbeen prematurely hatched by the violent rupture of the envelope.\nShe had overlain her babies. Those which were taken from her on the\nforty-second day from their extrusion for special inspection, were\nsuccessfully hatched, and I do not doubt that if they could have been\nkept clean and free from parasites this would have taken place if\nthey had been detached immediately after they were laid. The young\noctopods made their appearance on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of August:\nthe eggs had been extruded on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of June, and\nthus, although it was proved, as I expected, that the development of\nthe embryo does not depend on incubation, the accuracy of Aristotle\u2019s\nstatement that its period in the egg is fifty days was completely and\nsatisfactorily confirmed.\n\nIn the first week of January, 1875, another brood of young octopods\nwas hatched in the Brighton Aquarium, and in this, as in the former\ninstance, the period of development was that assigned to it by\nAristotle. From observations made during the previous winter I did\nnot expect that maturity would be completed within this term. Two\n\u201cnestings\u201d of octopus then occurred; and after twenty days, from time\nto time, as opportunity offered, when the mother left them for a\nminute in pursuit of an active crab scuffling away to the further end\nof the tank, one of the clusters of eggs was removed, and suspended\nin a separate cistern. The half-formed embryo was visible, though\nmotionless, within the membranous envelope; therefore it was evident\nthat the fertilisation of the ova had been effected. But although\nthe parent, in both cases, assiduously guarded them for nearly\nthree months\u2014almost twice the, apparently, normal period\u2014they were\naddled, as were also those which had been detached from under her\ncare. It appeared to me probable that the vitality of the embryo was\ndestroyed in an early stage by the lower temperature of the water\nduring the winter months, but I was not without hopes that their\nprogress towards maturity might prove to be merely retarded by the\nsame influence,\u2014an effect which is well known to be produced by cold\non the ova of the salmonid\u00e6. In order to test this, some of the eggs\nwere placed in a tank in the warm boiler-house, but without any\nbeneficial results. Yet the brood referred to was hatched in water of\nthe same temperature as that in which the former ones were addled,\nvarying little from 54 deg. Fahrenheit. I am unable to account for\nthis; so I reserve my opinion of the cause of failure, and am content\nto watch, and wait, and patiently note facts, and to abstain from\npropounding theories on unsafe bases.\n\nEveryone who loves and studies animals knows that each differs from\nothers of its species, in its habits and little ways, as distinctly\nas children, and men, and women are diverse in character and\ndisposition. The horses you have owned, the dogs you have loved, your\ncats, parrots, and even your pet cage-birds and little white mice,\nhave possessed widely varying characters and idiosyncrasies. Fishes,\nthe crustacea, and even the octopods are not excepted from this\nindividuality. The hen octopus in question, whilst on sentry duty\nguarding her undeveloped progeny, assumed a position and attitude\ntotally different from that adopted by her predecessor in maternal\njoys. The syringing of her eggs with a current of water from the\nsyphon tube was repeated by her; but she never cradled them, as did\nthe other, in the expanded membrane of a limb. Her usual posture\nwas with the under portion of her body presented to them, her eight\narms turned completely back, exposing their under surface armed with\ntheir battery of suckers, the muzzles of the latter pointing in every\ndirection, and the tip of the hard, horny beak, just discernible.\nThe fine ends of the arms might sometimes be seen gently winding\namongst the clusters of eggs as tenderly and lovingly as a father\u2019s\nfingers through the tresses of a darling child, but there was no\nevident nursing in this case.\n\nAn octopus about to spawn, like some birds in search of a\nnesting-place, seeks the most retired nook she can find in which to\ndeposit her eggs. The elasticity of her body enables her to squeeze\nherself through a very small orifice; and, therefore, the narrower\nthe entry to her den the more suitable is it for her purpose, because\nthe better adapted for defence against enemies and intruders. A\ncurious instance of the choice of such a nesting-place came under\nmy notice in March, 1874. Some fishermen, whilst dredging in the\nChannel off Brighton, brought up an earthen jar or carboy, which\nwould hold about two gallons. It was covered with serpul\u00e6, &c., and\nwas forthwith taken to the Aquarium. There it was discovered that it\ncontained an octopus and her eggs. The neck of the jar was only two\ninches in diameter: the octopus was a fully-grown specimen.\n\nThe young octopus fresh from the egg is of about the size of a large\nflea, and when irritated is of nearly the same colour. It is very\ndifferent in appearance from an adult individual of the same species.\nAt first sight it is more like a _sepia_, without its tentacles, than\nan octopus. The arms, which will afterwards be four or five times\nthe length of its body, are so rudimentary as to be even shorter in\nproportion than the pedal arms of the cuttle-fish, and appear only as\nlittle conical excrescences, having points of hair-like fineness, and\narranged in the form of an eight-rayed coronet around the head.\n\nAt this early stage of its existence the young octopus seeks and\nenjoys the light which it will, later in life, carefully shun. It\nmanifests no desire to hide itself in crevices and recesses, as the\nadult does, but swims freely about in the water, often close to the\nsurface, propelling itself backward by a series of little jerks\ncaused by each stroke of the force pump, which expels a jet of water\nfrom the out-flow pipe of the syphon. This contrast of its habits in\nyouth and age is so remarkable that when, after witnessing the gay\nactivity of the movements of the child-octopus, I again watched the\nfurtive, skulking habits of its shrivelled-skinned father, I could\nnot help comparing the latter with the old thief-trainer in \u201cOliver\nTwist,\u201d and wondering whether there ever could have been a time\nin the life of Fagin the Jew when he was innocent and frolicsome,\nand played, and leaped, and ran, and danced, and revelled in the\nsin-exposing sunshine, ere the light of day became odious to him, and\nhe shrank from it as a danger to be dreaded, and kept himself hidden\nin his den whilst his emissaries went out, like the arms of the old\noctopus, in search of prey for the benefit of their employer.\n\nI can say but little concerning the fertilisation of the eggs of the\noctopid\u00e6 in a book intended for readers of all classes, but it is\nso remarkable that this chapter would be incomplete without a few\nwords upon the subject. They are fecundated before, not after, their\nextrusion. In the breeding season a curious alteration takes place in\none of the arms of the male octopus; according to Steenstrup, always\nthe third on the right side, although it has been stated that the\nthird arm on the left is sometimes the one thus affected. The limb\nbecomes swollen, and from it is developed a long, worm-like process,\nfurnished with two longitudinal rows of suckers, from the extremity\nof which extends a slender, elongated filament. When its owner offers\nhis hand in marriage to a lady octopus she accepts it, _and keeps\nit_, _and walks away with it_, for this singular outgrowth is then\ndetached from the arm of her suitor, and becomes a moving creature,\nhaving separate life,[18] and continuing to exist for some time after\nbeing transferred to her keeping. In the meanwhile the lost portion\nof the \u201chectocotylized\u201d arm of the male is gradually reproduced, and\nin due time it assumes its former appearance.\n\nThe habits of the Eledone, of which there is only one British\nspecies, _E. cirrosa_, are the same as those of _Octopus vulgaris_,\nfrom which it chiefly differs in having only one row of suckers\ninstead of two along the under surface of its arms. Individuals of\nthis species have occasionally deposited a few eggs in the Brighton\nAquarium; but these have not, hitherto, arrived at maturity. They are\nconsiderably larger than those of the octopus, and not so numerous.\nThe eledone is not so hardy as its relative, and, in captivity, the\nfemale generally dies in spawning.\n\nIt is impossible for any student or observer of these animals to\navoid recognition of Aristotle\u2019s wonderfully intimate knowledge of\ntheir life-history, embryology, sexual conditions, and anatomy. When\nI first saw the octopus guarding her eggs the thought immediately\nrose in my mind,\u2014\u201cAristotle must have had an aquarium!\u201d He might\nhave learned by observations at the sea-side, on the coast of the\nMediterranean, the mode of progress of the octopus when swimming and\ncrawling, its change of colour when excited, the form of its eggs,\n&c., which he has correctly described; but it is impossible that he\ncould have so exactly designated the duration of the existence of the\nembryo in the egg without having had opportunities of noticing the\ndate of its extrusion, and that of the escape of the young octopods\nby the rupture of the envelope. His mention of the remarkable sexual\ndevelopment of one of the arms, its use in the impregnation of the\nova, their apparent incubation by the mother, and her incessant\nattention to her charge, also indicates that, during the intervening\ntime, the male and the brooding female were continually under his\ninspection. We are therefore led to the conclusion that the marine\naquarium, in some form, is one of the things that are not \u201cnew under\nthe sun.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nCUTTLES AND SQUIDS.\n\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 7. The common Cuttle-fish (_Sepia officinalis_),\nand its internal shell or \u201csepiostaire.\u201d]\n\nThe common cuttle-fish (_Sepia officinalis_), (often called by\nsailors the \u201cscuttle\u201d), though flabby and clammy in death, is a\nlovely object when alive. Unlike, the skulking, hiding octopus,\nbut equally rapacious, it loves the day-light and the freedom of\nthe open sea. Its predatory acts are not those of a concealed and\nambushed brigand lying in wait behind a rock, or peeping furtively\nfrom within the gloomy shadow of a cave; but it may better be\ncompared to the war-like Comanche vidette, seated motionless on\nhis horse, and scanning from some elevated knoll a wide expanse of\nprairie, in readiness to swoop upon a weak or unarmed foe. Poised\nnear the surface of the water, like a hawk in the air, the sepia\nmoves gently to and fro in its tank by graceful undulations of its\nlateral fins,\u2014an exquisite play of colour occasionally taking place\nover its beautifully barred and mottled back. When thus tranquil,\nits eight pedal arms are usually brought close together, and droop\nin front of its head, like the trunk of an elephant, shortened; its\ntwo longer tentacular arms being coiled up within the others, and\nunseen. Only when some small fish is given to it, as food, is its\nfacility of rapid motion displayed. Then, quickly as a kingfisher\ndarts upon a minnow, it pounces on its prey, enfolds it in its fatal\n\u201ccuddle\u201d[19] or embrace, and retires to a recess of its abode to tear\nit piece-meal with its horny beak, and rend it into minutest shreds\nwith its jagged tongue. In shallow water, however, it will often rest\nfor hours on the bottom, after a hearty meal, looking very much like\na sleepy tortoise. The cuttle-fishes are so voracious that fishermen\nregard them as unwelcome visitors. Some localities on our own coasts\nare occasionally so infested by them that the drift-netting has to be\nabandoned, in consequence of their devouring the fish, or rendering\nthem unsaleable by tearing them with their beaks as they hang in the\nmeshes.\n\nThe _Sepia_ seldom lives long in confinement. Although, like the\ncalamaries, it often swims gently forward by the use of its side\nfins, its usual mode of rapid progress is the same as that of the\noctopus; namely, darting backwards by the ejection of a stream of\nwater through the funnel. In a limited space, like an aquarium\ntank, there is not sufficient room for its rocket-like rush, and\ntherefore its hinder extremities so frequently come in contact with\nthe rock-work, that the skin is worn through until the edge of the\ninternal shell, or \u201csepiostaire\u201d is visible, and death follows.\nThe animal cannot see behind it; and so it often happens that it\nsimilarly comes to grief in its natural habitat, especially in calm\nweather, when, as Edward Forbes says, \u201cnot a ripple breaks upon the\npebbles to warn it that the shore is near. An enemy appears: the\ncreature ejects its ink,[20] like a sharp-shooter discharging his\nrifle ere he retreats, and then, darting away, tail foremost, under\ncover of the cloud, grounds itself high upon the beach, and perishes\nthere.\u201d\n\nThe following are the dimensions of a fine male _Sepia_ which I\ndissected at the Brighton Aquarium, July 3, 1875:\u2014\n\n  Diameter of body across the back and lateral fins    9\u00bd in.\n  Length of body, including marginal fin              12   \u201d\n    \u201d       head                                       3\u00bd  \u201d\n    \u201d       tentacles                                 21   \u201d\n    \u201d       shorter arms                               6   \u201d\n    \u201d       sepiostaire, or \u201cbone\u201d                    10\u00bc  \u201d\n\nSpecimens of another of the Sepiid\u00e6, the diminutive _Sepiola_ (_S.\nRondeletii_)\u2014a veritable Liliputian among cuttles\u2014are sometimes\ncaught in shrimp-nets, and brought to the Aquarium. The mantle-sac\nenclosing the body of this little Tom Thumb cephalopod is about an\ninch in length, and in shape like a short wide-bore mortar. The head\nmay be supposed to be the tompion fixed in the muzzle; and where\nthe trunnions would be are two little flat fins of rounded outline.\nThe large goggle eyes seem to be out of all proportion to the size\nof their owner; but they are, apparently, \u201call the better to see\nwith,\u201d either to watch for a tender young shrimp coming within arm\u2019s\nreach, or to perceive an approaching enemy. _Sepiola_, like its\ncomparatively Brobdingnagian relatives, has the faculty of rapidly\nchanging colour, and, if angered or alarmed, its hue is almost\ninstantaneously altered from a pale parchment dotted with pink, to a\ndeep reddish brown. In its habits this little animal differs as much\nfrom the sepia as the latter from the octopus. It naturally buries\nitself up to its eyes in the sand; but as sand is apt to harbour\nimpurities, which in a bowl or tank become corrupt, and generate\npoisonous sulphuretted hydrogen, the bottom of these receptacles is\nusually covered with fine shingle. It is most interesting to notice\nhow, in obeying its burrowing propensity, the _Sepiola_ adapts itself\nto its circumstances, and entirely deviates from its customary mode\nof procedure. To make a sand pit for its hiding-place, it will direct\nupon it strong jets of water from its funnel, and thus blow out a\ncavity in which to seat itself, and allow the disturbed particles to\nsettle over and around it; but, as the pebbles are too heavy to be\nthus displaced by its blasting apparatus, it removes them, one at a\ntime, by means of its arms, which are large and strong in proportion\nto its little short body.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 8. Sepiola Rondeletii.]\n\nNow and again specimens of the \u201clittle squid\u201d (_Loligo media_) are\nbrought in. Their movements are very graceful and pleasing. They are\ngregarious, like other squids, and keep close together. By the action\nof their tail-fins, they can either \u201cgo a-head\u201d or \u201cturn astern;\u201d and\nit is very interesting to watch their man\u0153uvres. We once had in one\nof the tanks four of these \u201clittle squids\u201d (which are only about four\ninches long), and I was much amused by seeing them perform, in a most\nludicrous manner, the quadrille figure called _La Trenise_. Three\nof them ranged themselves side by side, and advanced towards, and\nretired from a solitary one, who, for some reason, was not received\ninto their rank, but faced them. When they withdrew, stern first, to\nthe back of the tank, the lonely one followed them up with a _pas\nseul_. But there the similitude ended. He was repeatedly driven\nbackwards to his former position, and was not allowed the privilege\nof taking his partner with him.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 9. The common Squid (_Loligo vulgaris_) and its\ninternal horny shell, or \u201cpen.\u201d]\n\nThese \u201clittle squids\u201d are impudently voracious. I have seen one in\nsingle combat with a young dog-fish about four inches long. At first\nI thought the fish was the aggressor, and had seized one of the\ntentacular arms of the little _Loligo_ as a good substitute for a\nworm; but it was soon apparent that the affray had been provoked by\nthe carnivorous cephalopod, and that the puppy-fish would get the\nworst of it;\u2014so they were separated.\n\nThe common squid (_Loligo vulgaris_) is sometimes met with by the\ntrawlers off Brighton, and brought to the Aquarium in considerable\nnumbers. On the Sussex coast this species does not appear to assemble\nin very large brigades, but rather in small companies. No adult\nindividuals have been received. They are all \u201cyouths in their teens,\u201d\nnot full-grown squids; to which they bear the same proportion in size\nas a drum-and-fife-band of boys to a regiment of stalwart soldiers.\nThe largest English calamary I have seen, though larger specimens\nhave been cast ashore on the west coast of Ireland, is one which my\nfriend Dr. Bowerbank kindly sent to me, of a species comparatively\nrarely found in British home-waters,\u2014_Ommastrephes sagittatus_. Its\ndimensions were as follows:\u2014\n\n  Length from front of head to point of tail, 21\u00bd inches.\n  Circumference of body, 14 inches.\n  Greatest breadth across tail-fins, 14 inches.\n  Length of each tentacular arm, 28 inches.\n  Length of spread from tip to tip of the two tentacular arms,\n    4 feet 10 inches.\n\nIt was taken in the mackerel nets, and brought into Hastings by one\nof the fishing boats on the 26th of September, 1873. Unfortunately\nit had been much bruised and knocked about by its captors. On\nendeavouring to extract the internal horny shell, _gladius_, or\n\u201cpen,\u201d which Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys well describes as resembling a very\nlong oar with a broad handle, I found that it had been sadly smashed\nand broken across into many pieces. Fishermen often handle very\nroughly animals taken in their nets which have no value as marketable\nfood, and this splendid squid had probably been dashed down on the\ndeck of the boat with great violence. A pretence of some pains having\nbeen taken to keep it alive was, I am told, afterwards made. Although\nthe \u201csagittated calamary\u201d is uncommon on our own shores, it visits\nannually the coasts of Newfoundland in vast shoals, and is the\nspecies to which I have referred in another chapter, as being one of\nthe staple baits used in the cod-fishery of that country.[21]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 10. Eggs of the common Cuttle-fish (_Sepia\nofficinalis_).]\n\nThe eggs of the various families of cephalopods differ greatly from\neach other. Those of the Cuttle (_Sepia_) are like black grapes, each\nhaving a flexible stalk looking and feeling like india-rubber. The\nmother takes a turn with this stalk round the stem of the twig or\nseaweed to which she wishes to attach the egg; the india-rubber-like\nmaterial is soft and sticky when first laid; and so, instead of\nsplicing the loop, she brings the end round to the base of the stalk,\nclose to the egg, and cements or welds it there into a solid ring.\nThus the eggs are attached, one by one. Sometimes the stalk of one\nis fastened round that of another, and occasionally the process is\nrepeated until the whole mass is made up in this way, without any\ncentral stem. The work is as well and neatly done as if skilled hands\nhad been employed on it, but how the mother cuttle-fish effects it,\nI believe no one knows. I hope we may some day have opportunities of\nwatching her.\n\nAristotle wrote that the _Sepia_ fastens her eggs, near land, upon\nseaweeds, reeds, and other bodies which may be found on the shore,\nand even around sticks and faggots placed there for the purpose of\nentrapping her. \u201cShe does not lay them all at once,\u201d he says, \u201cbut\nat several intervals, the operation lasting fifteen days; and after\nthe oviposit is completed she sheds her ink upon them, which turns\nthem from white to black, and causes them to increase in bulk.\u201d He\nalso avers that she hatches them in the place where she has deposited\nthem, and is often to be seen with her body resting on the ground,\nand covering them. I do not think that the dark hue of the membranous\ninteguments of the eggs, and of their pedicle, or foot-stalk, is in\nany way attributable to their being stained by the animal\u2019s inky\nsecretion, although I have frequently seen masses of these eggs the\nintegument of which was not black, but perfectly colourless and\npellucid. That the mother broods over them, and protects them till\nthey are hatched, is quite in accordance with the observed habits\nof the octopus, and is, therefore, not improbable. But, as with the\noctopus, I am satisfied that no _incubation_ takes place.\n\nAt intervals, for many years past, I have found the eggs of the\n_Sepia_ and _Loligo_ in early stages of their development, and have\nhatched them out, without any assistance from their parent, by\nmerely suspending them in sea-water in a tank or tub, and changing\nthe water frequently. The same also has been frequently done at the\nBrighton Aquarium. This having been proved and demonstrated by actual\nexperiment, it is unnecessary to fortify facts by reasoning. But I\nhave seen a branch of a tree or shrub, measuring more than two feet\nin height from the base of the broken stem to the upper part of its\nbranches, and fourteen inches from side to side across the tips of\nthe twigs, covered with the eggs of _Sepia_ in single rows along\nthem. I cannot of course, be certain that these were all laid by one\nfemale, but it is evident that one could not cover so great an area\ncontinuously as an incubator, and that, if it were possible, she\nwould subject herself to unnecessary toil in so doing, seeing that\nthey were all hatched in a tank, after having been for about ten\ndays deprived of maternal care.\n\nThe young _Sepia_ when born is much larger than a baby octopus\nor squid. It is of about the size of a rather small horse-bean.\nWhen about half developed, the little animal has the head and\neyes disproportionately large, but gradually acquires a greater\nresemblance to its parent. If the black integument be removed, as one\nwould skin a grape, it may be seen moving in the fluid which fills\nthe egg. Cut down to the little living grape-stone under water, and\naway it will swim, with all its wits about it, and in possession of\nall its faculties, with as much facility and self-possession as if\nit had considerable knowledge of the world. It sees and avoids every\nobstacle, and if you take it out of the water, in your hand, the\nprecocious little creature, not a minute old, and not sufficiently\nmatured to leave the egg naturally, will spurt its ink all over\nyour fingers. You may tame an old cuttle-fish, and it will learn to\nknow that you are a friend, and intend to do it no harm; but the\nyoungsters are as shy as human babies, and regard every one but their\nmother as an enemy.\n\nThe preference for the light, which I described as exhibited by the\nyoung octopus, appears to be common also to the young squid and\ncuttle-fish. The latter generally seek the surface of the water;\nsometimes swimming gently by means of the locomotive tube and the\nundulating movement of the marginal fins, and at others poising their\nbodies motionless, as if basking. The habit in these two families is\nnot so surprising as it is in the young octopus, because the adult\n_Sepia_ and _Loligo_ are not cave-dwellers, but frequent the open\nsea, and often approach the surface.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 11. Spawn of the common Squid (_Loligo\nvulgaris_).]\n\nThe spawn of the squid (_Loligo vulgaris_) consists of dozens\nof semi-transparent, gelatinous, slender, cylindrical sheaths,\nabout four or five inches long, each containing many ova embedded\nin it, and all springing from one common centre, and resembling\na mop without a handle. Johann Bodasch, Professor of Natural\nHistory at Prague,[22] calculated that one of these mop-like masses\ncontained 39,766 ova; and by counting those embedded in ten of the\nlong gelatinous, finger-like processes, and weighing them and the\nremainder, I have verified his estimate, and computed that in the\nspecimen which was the subject of my investigation there were 42,000\nperfect young squids. It is evident that comparatively few of them\nlive to arrive at maturity, or the sea would teem with them; and in\nevery existing aquarium it has been found impossible to rear the\nyoung cephalopods hatched there. I have never seen these \u201csea-mops\u201d\nattached to anything, and the pelagic habits of the calamaries\nrender it probable that they are left floating on the surface of the\nsea.\n\nA remarkable organ with which some of the cephalopoda are provided\nis a sac, popularly called the \u201cink-bag,\u201d in which is stored a\ndeep black secretion, which they are able to employ at will as a\nprotection from rapacious enemies. On the approach of a suspected\nfoe, the animal discharges a quantity of this dense fluid, which\nrenders turbid the surrounding water, and thus enables its owner\nto escape in the obscurity. There is a communication between this\nink-bag and the funnel or locomotor-tube, already described; so that\nwhen the ink is ejected, it is forcibly emitted with the stream of\nwater which produces its rocket-like, backward motion. The very\neffort for escape thus serves the double purpose of propelling the\ncreature away from the danger, and discolouring the water in which it\nmoves.\n\nOppian has well described this:\u2014\n\n      \u201cTh\u2019 endanger\u2019d cuttle thus evades his fears,\n      And native hoards of fluids safely wears.\n      A pitchy ink peculiar glands supply\n      Whose shades the sharpest beam of light defy.\n      Pursued, he bids the sable fountains flow,\n      And, wrapt in clouds, eludes th\u2019 impending foe.\n      The fish retreats unseen, while self-born night\n      With pious shade befriends her parent\u2019s flight.\u201d\n\nThe position of the ink-bag varies in different families. In the\noctopus it is buried in the substance of the liver; and this animal\ndoes not emit its ink so readily as the cuttle or squid. I have very\nrarely seen it do so in captivity except when greatly exhausted or\npersistently irritated. It has been said that after being a few\nhours in captivity the octopus loses the power of secreting ink.\nThere is no foundation at all for such a statement. When placed in\na tank especially reserved for it, in which are no enemies to cause\nit fear, it has no need to conceal itself, and therefore does not\nunnecessarily eject its cloudy fluid; but I have never dissected\nan octopus, no matter how long it might have lived in confinement,\nwithout finding the ink-bag fairly charged, though some of its\ncontents are sometimes emitted when the animal is at the point of\ndeath.\n\nThe cuttle (_Sepia_) discharges it on the slightest provocation; and\nthis is sometimes very troublesome and annoying when this species is\nexhibited in an aquarium. The quantity of water its ink will obscure\nis really surprising. The fluid is secreted with amazing rapidity,\nand the black ejection frequently occurs several times in succession.\nI have often seen a cuttle completely spoil in a few seconds all the\nwater in a tank containing a thousand gallons.\n\nWhen first taken, the _Sepia_ is most sensitively timid. Its keen,\nunwinking eye watches for, and perceives the slightest movement of\nits captor; and if even most cautiously looked at from above, its ink\nis belched forth in eddying volumes, rolling over and over like the\nsmoke which follows the discharge of a great gun from a ship\u2019s port,\nand mixes with marvellous rapidity with the water, whilst the animal\nsimultaneously recedes to the best shelter it can find.\n\nBut, like all of its class, the _Sepia_ is very intelligent. It soon\nlearns to discriminate between friend and foe, and ultimately becomes\nvery tame, and ceases to shoot its ink, unless it be teased and\nexcited.\n\nProfessor Owen has remarked that the ejection of the ink of\nthe cephalopods serves by its colour as a means of defence, as\ncorresponding secretions in some of the mammalia by their odour.\n\nIt is worthy of notice that the Pearly Nautilus and the allied fossil\nforms are without this means of concealment, which their strong\nexternal shells renders unnecessary for their protection.\n\nFishermen are well acquainted with the fact that the cephalopods\u2014at\nany rate, our British representatives of the _Sepiid\u00e6_, _Calamaries_,\nand _Octopoda_\u2014habitually discharge, when taken, a jet of water, and\nthe two former sometimes their ink, in the faces of their captors.\nIt has been regarded as doubtful whether this is an intentional act,\nor whether it is accidental, and consequent on the bringing of the\norifice of the syphon tube above the surface, and the removal of the\nresistance to the out-pouring current, which, when ejected under\nwater, would, in the one case, have been a means of locomotion, and,\nin the other, of concealment of their whereabouts. Some have supposed\nthat the emission is involuntary, and is produced much in the same\nway as the water is tossed up in spray by the screw of a steam-vessel\nwhen her stern rises whilst she is pitching heavily in a rough sea.\nOthers, who have experienced the effect of this habit of the animals,\nhave persistently asserted that they take deliberate aim, with the\nmotive of aggression or self-defence.\n\nMr. Darwin, in his narrative of the \u201cVoyage of the Beagle,\u201d says that\nwhilst looking for marine animals, with his head about two feet above\nthe rocky shore, he was more than once saluted by a jet of water\naccompanied by a slight grating noise. At first he could not think\nwhat it was; but he afterwards found that it was an octopus, which,\nthough concealed in a hole, thus led him to its discovery; and it\nappeared to him that it could certainly take good aim, by directing\nthe tube or syphon on the under side of its body.\n\nThe force with which the water is expelled is often very great.\nSome of the _Loligin\u00e6_ are capable of propelling themselves with\nsuch momentum by a vigorous out-rush from the tube, that when this\npressure is so exerted as to cause them to take an upward direction,\nthey leap out of water to such a height as to fall on to the decks\nof vessels, and are called by sailors \u201cflying squids.\u201d Desiring to\npreserve some specimens of the \u201clittle squid\u201d (_Loligo media_),\nif possible with their colours unchanged, I put two alive into a\nbottleful of spirits of wine as the best method of causing their\ninstantaneous death. Both of them immediately \u201csquirted\u201d with such\neffect that a third part of the spirits of wine was thrown out of the\nbottle and spilled on the table.\n\nI have no doubt at all that the cephalopods intentionally and\ndeliberately take aim, and that they are able to do so as accurately\nas the \u201cArcher-fish\u201d (_Toxotes jaculator_), which by the ejection of\na drop of water from its mouth, brings down a fly from a branch or\nleaf three or four feet above the surface of the water.\n\nWith the purpose of testing the swimming powers of an octopus, and\nmaking other observations connected with its mode of progression\nthrough the water, I experimented with one in one of the store tanks\nat Brighton. I had put him through his paces, and brought him back\nto the starting-post several times after he had swum to the further\nend of the tank, and at last the creature became irritated. Instead\nof sinking to the bottom as he had previously tried to do, he swam\nalong the surface away from me till he reached the back of the tank,\nwhere he sustained himself motionless for an instant, and then shot\nforth a jet of water which struck me on the breast, and drenched my\nshirt-front, though I was five feet distant from him.\n\nI have known of many amusing instances of this squirting of water or\nink by the cuttle-fish startling the victim of it by its unexpected\nsuddenness.\n\nMy deceased friend Tom Hood, unaware of this propensity of the\nanimal, hastened to lay hold of one which he had hooked in Looe\nHarbour, and, receiving its _jet d\u2019eau_ full in his face, exclaimed\nthat \u201che did not exactly know what he had on his line, but he thought\nhe had caught a young garden engine.\u201d\n\nFishermen, when catching squid as bait, haul them up slowly until\nthey are nearly at the surface of the water, and then \u201cgaff\u201d them by\nthe tail, and hold them at some distance from the boat, to allow them\nto discharge their ink. The Rev. J. G. Wood mentions an incident of\na naval officer\u2019s white-duck trousers being \u201cde-decorated\u201d with the\nliquid missile of a cuttle; the aggrieved individual asserting that\nit took deliberate aim for that purpose.\n\nDuring a Saturday night\u2019s chat with some Sussex fishermen with\nwhom I had often before held pleasant conversation on matters\nappertaining to their craft, cuttle-fishes, sometimes called by\nsailors \u201cink-spewers,\u201d were mentioned, and one of the party related\nthe following adventure of a shipmate who was present. I must tell it\nin his own language.\n\n\u201cWe was out fishin\u2019 one quiet night,\u201d he said, \u201cand had just got\nour trawl awash, and was a-goin\u2019 to hand it in-board, when Bill,\nhere, all of a sudden lets go his holt, roars out like a stuck\npig\u2014\u201cOh-h-h!\u2014What the \u2014\u2014 is that?\u201d and tumbles back\u2019ards into an\nempty fish-basket. We hadn\u2019t no time to \u2019tend to him till we\u2019d got\nour haul on deck, but I guessed what was up; and when we looked\nround we pretty near split our sides with laughing. There was Bill\na-leanin\u2019 back agin the skiff, wipin\u2019 his eyes, to get some muck out\nof \u2019em, as he said made \u2019em smart, and his face for all the world as\nif Davy Jones had emptied a tar-barrel on his head, and he looking\nas doleful as a schoolboy as has upset the inkstand over his hands\nand smeared his face with it in rubbin\u2019 the tears away while he was\na-crying for fear the master\u2019d lick him. Well, sir, it were one o\u2019\nthem scuttles as we\u2019re talkin\u2019 about as we\u2019d brought up, and they\n_can_ shoot straight and no mistake. It\u2019s my opinion as Mr. Scuttle\nsighted Bill\u2019s nose as soon as he come atop of the water and aimed\nright at it; for you can see, sir, as Bill\u2019s nose looms as red as\nBeachy Head Light in a fog, and any scuttle as misses it must be a\nfool. Bill won\u2019t forget that dose of ink for a good while yet\u2014will\n\u2019ee, old man?\u201d\n\nBill is very good natured, and joined heartily in the laugh elicited\nby the anecdote. The worthy fellow might have retorted that he had\nseen his friend\u2019s face, and those of half the population of his\nneighbourhood simultaneously blackened, if not by a cuttle-fish, by\nan equally singular accident.\n\nIn the autumn of 1872, an American full-rigged ship, bound to London,\nwent ashore in Seaford Bay, in consequence of the captain mistaking\nthe lights and (believing himself further up Channel) pointing her\nhead N.E. before he ought to have done so. The vessel was lightly\nbuilt\u2014a mere bandbox of a craft\u2014and, after beating and thumping for\na short time close in shore, she became a total wreck. The masts\nwent by the board, and, as she broke up, the sewing-machines, metal\npails, and other \u201cYankee notions\u201d with which she had been laden,\nwere rolled and tumbled on the beach by the breakers in a pitiable\ncondition and sad confusion. Amongst her cargo were a hundred casks\nof lamp-black; and at intervals one and another of these would burst\nwith a crash, and the contents fly out in clouds, like smoke from a\ngun. The soft impalpable powder did not mix readily with the water,\nand was carried to the shore and inland by the strong sea-breeze.\nThe coast-guards\u2019 white buildings gradually assumed the hue of the\ninside of a boiler-flue; the beach, the grass, and the roads in the\nvicinity looked as if fifty thousand chimney-sweeps had emptied\ntheir soot-bags over them; and the stuff fell lightly and gently,\nlike a dust shower, over the throng of anxious spectators, until the\nladies appeared as if they were dressed in deep mourning for the\ncatastrophe, and the faces of all, moistened by the salt spray, and\nbespattered and powdered with the subtle material, became as black as\na negro\u2019s, and as shiny as a well-blacked stove. A visitor arriving\nsuddenly amongst them, without access to a looking-glass, might well\nhave believed that he had discovered a colony of panic-stricken\nChristy minstrels. The sublime, the sorrowful, and the ridiculous\nhave, perhaps, never been more intimately blended than in that scene\nof dashing, foaming breakers, tossed and battered wreckage, and\nsmutted faces. Even Denys De Montfort\u2019s \u201ccolossal poulpe,\u201d which he\ndescribed as deluging a ship from its syphon tube, would not have had\nan ink-bag large enough to produce such an effect by its contents.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nECONOMIC VALUE OF CUTTLE-FISHES.\n\n\nI will now try to answer M. Hugo\u2019s question concerning \u201cthese\nblasphemies of creation against itself\u201d\u2014\u201cOf what use are such\ncreatures? What purpose do they serve?\u201d\n\nIt must not be supposed that in mentioning a few facts relative\nto their economic value to mankind I consent to the narrow and\nconceited doctrine that, either by laws fixed from the beginning, or\nby successive fiats of creation, they were especially provided for\nthe future advantage of the human race. Many genera of them, which\nformed no unimportant portion of the fauna of the ancient seas, lived\nand died, and their families became extinct, ages upon ages before\nman\u2019s appearance on the earth. He has, it is true, utilised them to a\ncertain extent, and in various ways. In some parts of the world they\nare a recognised addition to the food supply of the population; and,\nin others, the means by which fishes more valuable than themselves\nare obtained, and become marketable produce. But that this is the\nsole object of their being, I cannot for a moment suppose; and\ntherefore I am content to believe that the Great Architect of the\nUniverse made them and all things for Himself, and that for His\npleasure they are and were created.\n\nAlthough the cephalopods are seldom eaten in Great Britain, they\nare appreciated as food by nearly all other maritime nations. Along\nthe western coast of France, and in the countries bordering on the\nMediterranean and Adriatic, they form a portion of the habitual\nsustenance of the people, and are regularly exposed for sale in the\nmarkets, both in a fresh and dried condition. Salted cuttles and\noctopus are there eaten during Lent as commonly as salted cod are\nbrought to table in England on Good Friday; and, thus prepared,\ngenerally form a portion of the provisions supplied to the Greek\nfishing boats and coasters.[23] The Indians of North-Western America\nlook upon them as the proverbial alderman regards turtle, and devour\nthem with the same gusto and relish; only the savage roasts the\nglutinous carcase, instead of making soup of it. In Chili, Peru,\nBrazil, and Teneriffe, they are eagerly sought for; and they are\nan article of daily consumption in India and China, and especially\nin Japan, where there is a very important trade in them. Professor\nEdward Forbes[24] relates his experience of the use of them by the\nGreeks:\u2014\n\n\u201cThe traveller who, when treading the shores of the coasts and\nislands of the \u00c6gean, observes, as he can scarcely fail to do,\nthe innumerable remains of the hard parts of cuttle-fishes piled\nliterally in heaps along the sands\u2014or, when watching the Greek\nfishermen draw their nets, marks the number of these creatures\nmixed up with the abundance of true fishes taken and equally prized\nas articles of food by the captors\u2014can at once understand why the\nnaturalists of ancient Greece should have treated so fully of the\nhistory of the cephalopoda, and its poets have made allusions to them\nas familiar objects. One of the most striking spectacles at night on\nthe coasts of the \u00c6gean is to see the numerous torches glancing along\nthe shores, and reflected by the still and clear sea, borne by poor\nfishermen paddling as silently as possible over the rocky shallows in\nsearch of the cuttle-fish, which, when seen lying beneath the waters\nin wait for his prey, they dexterously spear, ere the creature has\ntime to dart with the rapidity of an arrow from the weapon about to\ntransfix his soft but firm body. As in ancient times, these molluscs\nconstitute, now, a valuable part of the food of the poor, by whom\nthey are chiefly used. We can ourselves bear testimony to their\nexcellence. When well beaten, to render the flesh tender, before\nbeing dressed, and then cut up into morsels and served in a savoury\nbrown stew, they make a dish by no means to be despised, excellent in\nboth substance and flavour. A modern Lycian dinner, in which stewed\ncuttle-fish formed the first, and roast porcupine the second course,\nwould scarcely fail to be relished by an unprejudiced epicure in\nsearch of novelty.\u201d\n\nI have tasted the octopus, sepia, and loligo, and am quite of\nProfessor Forbes\u2019s opinion that they are very palatable when really\nwell cooked. They are all the better for being dressed with made\ngravy, but may be eaten plainly boiled, and served with egg-sauce.\nThey are apt, however, to be very tough unless slowly simmered,\nand should first be well beaten with a wooden mallet or the flat\nof a cleaver. At Gibraltar, the Spanish fishermen may frequently\nbe observed engaged in softening an octopus by dashing it several\ntimes with great violence on the stone landing steps at the\nfish-market.[25] The flavour is not unlike that of the skate, or the\nwhite part of a scallop. A writer in the \u201cEcho\u201d called the flesh of\nthe octopus \u201ca sort of marine tripe, the chief merit of which lay in\nthe sauce in which it was served.\u201d I am inclined to agree with him.\n\nTo many persons who have not, like the Greeks, been accustomed from\nchildhood to regard it as a delicacy, the appearance of an octopus,\nalive or dead, is very revolting; and I admit that its boiled\ncarcase, put before one in unadorned simplicity, is not appetizing.\n\nI shall never forget the utter loathing, ludicrously mingled\nwith determination to conquer or conceal that feeling, which was\ndepicted on the countenances of some of the guests at a memorable\n\u201coctopus-lunch\u201d given by my friend Sir John Cordy Burrows at\nBrighton, in 1874.\n\nHis cook had never before prepared an octopus, and was, probably,\nnot well pleased to do so then. The nasty-looking object was placed\non the table in all its undisguised ugliness. Its skin, which in\nthe process of boiling had become lividly purple, and had not been\nremoved, was in places offensively broken and abraded; and its\narms, shrivelled and shrunk, sprawled helplessly on the dish, and,\nsomehow, looked, as they proved to be, as tough and ropy as so many\nthongs of hunting-whips. Our genial host saw in an instant that\nit was a failure in cookery, but, as usual, he was equal to the\noccasion. With a twinkle of his eye he \u201ctook a sly glance at me,\u201d\nand gravely handed a portion of the octopus to an honoured guest.\n\u201cNow, sir,\u201d said he, \u201cjust taste that, and enjoy one of the luxuries\nof the ancient Greeks!\u201d The ancient Greeks were, as it seemed to me,\nmentally anathematized; but the plate was accepted, its contents\nearnestly scanned, the knife and fork just brought into contact with\nthe viand, and then all were thrust hastily away. A gallant colonel,\nwho would probably be in \u201cthe first flight\u201d across country, and would\nnot hesitate to lead a charge of his regiment, also \u201ccraned\u201d at his\nplate, and declined to taste the \u201cluxury.\u201d Sir Cordy then looked to\nme as his \u201cforlorn hope.\u201d With the air of a veteran and connoisseur\nI helped him and myself to some of the most approved portions of the\nleathery creature. Manfully and perseveringly for some minutes I\ntried to masticate a mouthful of it, but it was useless; and feeling\nthat if human teeth could make no more impression on it than on the\nsole of an old boot, the human stomach incurred risk of difficulties\nwhich all the well-known medical skill of our good host might be\nunable to cure, I declined to sacrifice myself to an idea, and\u2014\u2014;\nwell, I did not swallow it.\n\nThe octopus had not been beaten. We were! I afterwards saw this\nlittle private experiment seriously described in a newspaper\nparagraph, which was extensively quoted, as an endeavour to introduce\nto the public a new and valuable article of marketable food.\n\nIn my opinion, the squid, or sleeve (_Loligo_), is the best of the\nthree. Rondeletius recommends their being dressed with oil and\nvinegar. On the Normandy coast they are boiled with onions and\nother vegetables, the liquor being saved as good stock for soup. At\nMarseilles they are stuffed with dried tendrils of the vine. The\nChinese and Japanese prefer them seasoned with vinegar and ginger,\nand attribute to the flesh various medicinal properties. In Mauritius\nand the neighbouring islands they are generally curried.\n\nThe various genera of cuttle-fishes were held in high estimation\nby the ancients; and it was a custom of the Greeks to send them\nout as presents on the fifth day after the birth of a child, and\nbefore giving it a name. At the nuptial feast of Iphicrates, who\nmarried the daughter of Cotys, King of Thrace, a hundred polypi and\nsepi\u00e6 were served. The Greek epicures prized them most when they\ncontained \u201croe,\u201d and had them cooked with highly seasoned sauces. The\nLaced\u00e6monians boiled them entire, and were not disgusted by the black\nfroth formed by their inky liquor diffusing itself in the water.\n\nIn \u201cThe Deipnosophists\u201d of Athen\u00e6us are numerous quotations from\nolder writers relating to the use, as food, of the various kinds of\ncuttle-fishes. Athen\u00e6us, who was an Egyptian, born in Naucratis, a\ntown on the left side of the Canopic mouth of the Nile, lived and\nwrote in the first half of the third century. He appears to have\nbeen imbued with a great love of learning, in the pursuit of which\nhe indulged in the most extensive and multifarious reading. His\n\u201ccommon-place book\u201d must have been a marvel of industrious annotation\nand careful record, for he has saved from oblivion, by his extracts\nfrom their writings, many authors whose works have been long ago\nlost, and of whose existence future generations would have been\nunaware, if he, by his faithful and pains-taking acknowledgment of\nhis indebtedness to them, had not handed them down to posterity.\nHe devotes many chapters to the history of festive entertainments,\nand the dishes served at banquets of the old Romans and Greeks;\nand by his collection from numerous authors of passages, some of\nwhich contain but a few words, and were probably regarded by their\ncontemporaries as of fugitive interest, has given us an insight\nof the elaborate preparations made for dinner-parties, and the\nappreciation of artistic cookery by _gourmets_ in those days. Some of\nour household cooks in this nineteenth century would \u201cgive warning\u201d\ninstantly if asked to get ready for table for their master\u2019s friends\nsuch a profuse variety of dishes. Course followed course in skilfully\narranged sequence, all intended to tempt the palate, or supposed to\npossess some medicinal or stomachic virtue, and presenting, in their\ncombination, a feast compared with which our lord mayor\u2019s dinners\nare unrefined in their mere plenty. In all important entertainments,\npublic or private, the cuttle-fishes of the Mediterranean were highly\nesteemed as delicacies, and were as well known and regularly looked\nfor in the _menu_ as are salmon and turbot at similar gatherings\nnow. In the following extracts from the notebook of Athen\u00e6us, by the\n\u201cpolypus\u201d is meant the _Octopus_, by the \u201ccuttle-fish\u201d the _Sepia_,\nand by the \u201csquid\u201d or \u201csquill,\u201d the genus represented by our _Loligo_.\n\nPlato, the comic poet, mentioning in his \u201cPhaon\u201d the banquet of\nPhiloxenus the Leucadian, says:\u2014\n\n      \u201cGood-sized _polypus_ in season,\n      Should be boiled\u2014to roast them\u2019s treason,\n      But if early, and not big,\n      Roast them; boiled ar\u2019n\u2019t worth a fig.\u201d\n\nAlexis, in his \u201cPseudypobolem\u00e6us,\u201d writes:\u2014\n\n      Take the stiff feelers of the _polypus_,\n      And with them you shall find some modest liver\n      And cutlets of wild goats, which you shall eat.\n\nThe eggs of the octopus and sepia were also regarded as dainties.\nHegemon of Thasos thus refers to them in his \u201cPhiluma:\u201d\u2014\n\n      Go quickly! buy me of that _polypus_,\n      And fry the _roe_, and give it us to eat.\n\nBut to fry octopus was not, by some, considered good cooking.\nNicostratus of Philet\u00e6rus says, in the \u201cAntyllus:\u201d\u2014\n\n      I never again will venture to eat cuttle-fish which has been\n          dressed in a frying-pan.\n\nThey ate heartily at breakfast in those times, it seems, for\nEpicharmus tells us in \u201cThe Sirens:\u201d\u2014\n\n      In the morning early, at the break of day,\n      We roasted plump anchovies,\n      Cutlets of well-fed pork and _polypi_;\n      And then we drank sweet wine.\n\nPhiloxenus, the poet of Cythera, is reported to have been a very\ngreedy man. He wished that he had a throat three cubits long, that he\nmight drink as long as possible, and that his food might all at once\ndelight him. Machon, the comic poet, relates how his fondness for\nwell-cooked octopus and his insatiate gluttony caused his death:\u2014\n\n      They say Philoxenus, the ancient poet\n      Of Dithyrambics, was so wonderfully\n      Attached to fish, that once at Syracuse\n      He bought a polypus two cubits long,\n      Then dress\u2019d it, and then ate it up himself,\n      All but the head\u2014and afterwards fell sick,\n      Seized with a sharp attack of indigestion.\n      Then when some doctor came to him to see him\n      Who saw that he was greatly out of order;\n      \u201cIf,\u201d said the doctor, \u201cyou have any business\n      Not well arranged, do not delay to settle it,\n      For you will die before six hours are over!\u201d\n      Philoxenus replied, \u201cAll my affairs,\n      O Doctor, are well ended and arranged\n      Long, long ago; but now, since deadly fate\n      Calls me away, who can\u2019t be disobeyed,\n      That I may go below with all my goods,\n      _Bring me the relics of that polypus!_\u201d\n\nWe learn something of the most approved methods of cooking the\n\u201ccuttle-fishes\u201d and \u201csquids\u201d from the following passages. Sotades, in\nhis play entitled \u201cThe Shut-up Women,\u201d introduces a cook, who makes a\nspeech in which these molluscs are mentioned:\u2014\n\n      A fine dish is the squill, when carefully cook\u2019d,\n      But the rich cuttle-fish is eaten plain;\n      Though I did stuff them all with a rich forced-meat\n      Of almost every kind of herb and flower.\n\nAlexis, in his \u201cWicked Woman,\u201d also introduces a cook, who speaks as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n      Now these three cuttle-fish I have just bought\n      For one small drachma. And when I\u2019ve cut off\n      Their feelers and their fins, I then shall boil them;\n      And, cutting up the main part of their meat\n      Into small discs, and rubbing in some salt,\n      After the guests already are sat down\n      I then shall put them in the frying-pan,\n      And serve up hot towards the end of supper.\n\nEriphus says, in his \u201cMelib\u0153a:\u201d\u2014\n\n      These things poor men cannot afford to buy;\u2014\n      The entrails of the tunny, or the head\n      Of greedy pike, or conger, or cuttle-fish,\n      Which I don\u2019t think the gods above despise.\n\nAthen\u00e6us cites a great many more authors, who testify to the esteem\nin which the cephalopoda were held in the olden times, as the\nconstituents of dainty dishes.\n\nCuttle-fishes are employed as bait by fishermen, and, by their\nabundance at certain seasons in the neighbourhood of Newfoundland,\nthey exercise an important influence on the cod-fishery; thus\nplaying, as D\u2019Orbigny remarks, an important part in the commerce of\nthe most flourishing nations of Europe.\n\nFrom a letter from Mr. W. E. Cormack, an intelligent Newfoundland\nmerchant, who distinguished himself by being the first European who\nsucceeded in crossing Newfoundland\u2014communicated by Professor Jameson\nto the \u201cEdinburgh New Philosophical Journal\u201d (1826, p. 32)\u2014we learn\nthat more than a hundred millions of cod are caught annually with\ncuttle-fish as bait, about two hundred millions with the capelin, and\none hundred millions with herrings and \u201cshell-fish.\u201d\n\nPoole, in Dorsetshire, has long been one of the principal ports and\ndep\u00f4ts of the Newfoundland trade. My friend Mr. Wm. Penney of that\ntown, very kindly obtained for me, in compliance with my request,\nsome authentic recent information on the subject from a gentleman who\nfor many years resided in Newfoundland, as the agent of a Poole firm.\nHe writes:\u2014\n\n\u201cMy friend Mr. E\u2014\u2014, who has spent some years in Newfoundland, informs\nme that the bait used for the cod-fishery there at the commencement\nof May is the herring; during June, July, and August, the capelin;\nand about the end of August, and throughout September they use the\nsquids, which come into the bays in great abundance. They are caught\nby means of a \u201cjigger,\u201d which is a conical piece of lead, round\nthe circumference of the base of which are inserted eight or ten\nhooks. The fishermen go out in punts squid-jigging of an evening,\nto catch the bait required for the next day\u2019s fishing. About 100 or\nmore squids are caught by each boat, and thousands of them are taken\nduring the season about 150 or 200 yards from the shore, in tolerably\ndeep water. In many stations more than a dozen boats are engaged in\nsquid-catching. During the squid-jigging the fishermen hollo and\nshout, and make a great noise; for what purpose Mr. E\u2014\u2014 does not\nknow. All parts of the squid are cut up, and used as bait; what is\nnot required the next day is thrown away or given to the pigs. In the\nnorthern district, between Cape Freels and Cape St. John, the fishing\nspots are at Robin\u2019s Cave Head, and Friday\u2019s Bay, on the anchorage\nground. The fishing takes place about sun-down. The squid is of an\noval form, and resembles somewhat our cuttle-fish, but it has no\nsolid bone. The length of the body is from eight inches to a foot,\nand it is about two inches in diameter. The flesh is said by the\nfishermen to be remarkably sweet and good eating, and to be excellent\nfried. About the end of September the squid disappears, and herring\nare then again caught: thus herring forms the bait for the fishery at\nthe commencement and end of the fishing season. Mr. E\u2014\u2014 believes that\nthe squid is caught and used for bait all round Newfoundland, but he\ncan only speak with certainty of the northern district.\u201d\n\nI learn from other sources that the same mode of fishing is followed\nin other parts of Newfoundland, and that hundreds of boats are\nengaged during September in \u201cjigging;\u201d a crew of three men usually\ntaking from one hundred to five hundred in a day. The squids come\ninto the bays in such vast shoals that sometimes, during violent\ngales, hundreds of tons of them are thrown up together in beds on\nthe flat beaches, and their decay spreads an intolerable effluvium\naround.[26]\n\nThe Greek fishermen use, as a \u201cjigger,\u201d the bone of the _Sepia_\nsurrounded with hooks, believing it to be more attractive than the\nleaden weight above described.\n\nThis mode of catching squid is of very early origin. It was a common\npractice in Oppian\u2019s time, although the \u201cjigger\u201d he describes was\nsomewhat different from that now in use. He writes:\u2014\n\n      For _sleves_ a slender shaft the swain provides\n      Cylindric, like a distaff: round the sides\n      Adjacent hooks their radiant files extend,\n      With points supine the dreadful rows descend,\n      To silent deeps the fatal engine slides,\n      The steely curves a painted rainbow hides.\n      The incurious sleve invades his artful fate,\n      And throws his branching snouts around the bait.\n      Within the hooks the thready tendrils twine,\n      Entangled in th\u2019 embrace they would resign.\n      In vain to disengage his hold he tries,\n      In his own chains the self-caught captive dies.\n\nOppian also describes another method of taking cuttles, which in some\nlocalities is still resorted to at certain seasons. The fishermen\nfasten the end of a line round a living female octopus or sepia, and\nlower her down towards a rocky bottom. On the male coming to woo he\ncomes to woe, for both are pulled up together.\n\nThere is nothing incredible in this. The Japanese, at the present\nday, use a spawning female fish as a lure for others of the same\nspecies. Having found one nearly, but not quite, ready to deposit her\nroe, they squeeze from her a portion of it, which hangs suspended\nfrom the body, and then anchor her near the shore by a hook and\nline. The males are instinctively drawn to the spot, a seine is shot\nround them, and all are easily taken. A similar process is commonly\nresorted to by entomologists for the capture of rare species of moths\nand butterflies.\n\nCuttles are often caught in the Adriatic by sinking in the sea\nbranches of trees and faggots, which entice them, as being suitable\nspawning ground and offering good anchorage for their eggs.\n\nIt is somewhat remarkable that whilst the octopus shuns the light and\nretreats from that of a lanthorn, the cuttle and squid are attracted\nby it. At Trincomalee, at certain seasons of the year, the bay is\nilluminated during the night by hundreds of lights of fishing boats\nmoving hither and thither. A dead cuttle is generally the bait used.\nThis is suspended in the water, and when hauled in from time to time,\none or more of its species are found fast to it, and feeding on their\ndeceased relative. When removed from the water they emit a peculiar\n\u201csquelching\u201d noise, which has been compared to the grunting of a\nhog. It appears to me to be caused by the forcing of air, instead of\nwater, through the syphon tube.[27]\n\nThey are also frequently taken by spearing, as described by Edward\nForbes; and my friend, Mr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., mentions[28]\nhaving seen in a curious Japanese book, preserved in the British\nMuseum, a picture of a man in a boat engaged in catching\ncuttle-fishes with a spear, and also of a fishmonger\u2019s shop in Japan\nat which a number of enormous cuttle-fishes are represented hanging\nup for sale.\n\nThe crystalline lens of the eye, which is soft in quadrupeds, and\ncartilaginous in fishes, is very solid in the cephalopoda. It is\nalmost calcareous, and very peculiar in its form. It consists of\ntwo double concave portions, divided by a deep groove, in which are\ninserted the ciliary processes. The two halves, which are almost\nglobose at their outer surfaces, separate easily, and exhibit\ninternally a series of concentric coats, which reflect light with a\nbeautiful nacreous opalescence and play of colours. In some parts of\nItaly the women use these lenses as beads for necklaces. I have seen\nthem thus worn at Genoa on festival days. They appear also to have\nbeen used as ornaments by the ancient Peruvians. Dr. J. E. Gray, in\nhis \u201c_Spicilegia Zoologica_,\u201d published in 1828, says that the Rev.\nMr. Hennah brought to this country several of a large size which he\nfound in the tombs and old habitations of the natives; and that Mr.\nStutchbury had informed him that the Sandwich Islanders sold these\nlustrous eyes to the Russians as pearls.\n\nThe \u201ccuttle-bone\u201d or dorsal plate of _Sepia_, sometimes called\n\u201csea-biscuit,\u201d from its shape and its being frequently found floating\non the surface of the water, is used, when pounded, as polishing\npowder, by jewellers, and, under the name of \u201cpounce,\u201d to smooth\nwriting-paper where an erasure has been made with a penknife. Known\nas \u201cwhite coral powder,\u201d it used to be regarded as the very best\ndentifrice,[29] and was formerly prescribed in medicine as an antacid\nand absorbent.\n\nThe Roman ladies employed it, burned and pulverised, as a cosmetic\nfor the face; and it was, no doubt, a good substitute for the \u201cpearl\npowder\u201d now in fashion. Broken pieces of it are also occasionally\nplaced between the wires of the cages of song-birds, for them to peck\nat, instead of chalk or other calcareous substances.\n\nThe \u201cink\u201d which the cuttle-fish has the power of ejecting when\nalarmed, for the purpose of obscuring the water and hiding its own\nretreat, was formerly used in writing. Cicero mentions this use of\nit, and from it is also made the true \u201csepia\u201d of artists. I have more\nthan once lately seen it stated that the ink of the cuttle-fish is no\nlonger employed for this purpose, and that \u201csepia\u201d is now prepared\nfrom lamp-black. A great deal of rubbish of this kind is probably\nsold; but I have recently seen at Messrs. Newman\u2019s, the well-known\nartists\u2019 colourmen, in Soho Square, thousands of the ink-bags of\ncuttles in the raw state, ready to be manufactured into \u201csepia.\u201d The\nfishermen of some of our southern counties, when cleaning cuttles and\nsquids for bait, habitually dry the ink-bags and their contents, and\npreserve them until Messrs. Newman\u2019s agent visits the district and\ncollects them. If the Newfoundland fishermen, when \u201csquid-jigging,\u201d\nwould take the trouble to preserve the ink-bags, they would find a\nready sale for them, and might make of them a profitable perquisite.\nThe beautiful drawings with which Cuvier illustrated his \u201cAnatomy\nof the Mollusca\u201d were executed with the ink which he had collected\nwhilst dissecting many specimens of the cephalopoda; and it is well\nknown that fossil cuttle-fishes have been found with the ink-bag\nperfect, and that from its contents excellent \u201csepia\u201d has been\nobtained. Some of these ink-bags found in the lias, associated with\ntraces of the \u201cpen\u201d or inner shell, are nearly twelve inches long,\nand must have belonged to calamaries of gigantic size. It is an\noft-told anecdote that the late Dr. Buckland gave some of this fossil\nink to Sir Francis Chantrey, who pronounced it to be of unusually\ngood quality, and with it made a drawing of the specimen from\nwhich it was taken. This drawing is now in the possession of Dean\nBuckland\u2019s son and Sir Francis\u2019s godson, my friend Frank Buckland.\nI have also seen a cake of fossil sepia prepared by Messrs. Newman\nfor Professor Dick, of Cambridge, about the year 1850, which rubs as\nsmoothly, and is as rich in colour, as that manufactured from the ink\nof recent cuttle-fishes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nGIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISHES.\n\n\nThe history of the ancient belief in the existence of gigantic\ncephalopods is somewhat obscure. All that we know of it is from\npassages in the works of a few old Greek and Latin authors, and a\nseries of Scandinavian traditions. I have already referred to the\n\u201cmonstrous polypus\u201d mentioned by Pliny,[30] which, at Carteia, in\nGrenada, used to come out of the sea at night, and carry off salted\ntunnies from the curing dep\u00f4ts on the shore, and also to the incident\nrecorded by \u00c6lian,[31] who describes his monster as crushing up the\nbarrels of salt-fish in its arms, to get at the contents. In the\nlegends of northern nations stories of the existence of a marine\nanimal of such enormous size that it more resembled an island than an\norganised being frequently found a place; and though the descriptions\ngiven of it were wild and extravagant, it is not difficult to\nrecognise in the ill-drawn and distorted portrait the attempted\nlikeness of one of the cephalopoda. Olaus Magnus[32] relates many\nwondrous narratives of sea-monsters,\u2014tales which had gathered and\naccumulated marvels as they were passed on from generation to\ngeneration in oral history, and which he took care to bequeath to his\nsuccessors undeprived of any of their fascination.\n\nEric Pontoppidan, the younger, Bishop of Bergen, is generally, but\nunjustly, regarded as the inventor of the fabulous Kraken, and is\nconstantly misquoted by authors who have never read his work,[33]\nand who, one after another, have copied from their predecessors\nerroneous statements concerning him. More than half a century before\nhim Christian Francis Paullinus,[34] a physician and naturalist of\nEisenach, who evinced in his writings an admiration of the marvellous\nrather than of the useful, had described as resembling Gesner\u2019s\n\u201cHeracleoticon,\u201d a monstrous animal which occasionally rose from\nthe sea on the coasts of Lapland and Finmark, and which was of such\nenormous dimensions that a regiment of soldiers could conveniently\nman\u0153uvre on its back. Pontoppidan was not a fabricator of falsehoods;\nbut, in collecting evidence relating to the \u201cgreat beasts\u201d living\nin \u201cthe great and wide sea,\u201d was influenced, as he tells us, by \u201ca\ndesire to extend the popular knowledge of the glorious works of a\nbeneficent Creator.\u201d His fault, or mistake, was that he gave too\nmuch credence to old narratives and traditions of floating islands\nand sea-monsters, and to the superstitious beliefs and exaggerated\nstatements of ignorant fishermen. If those who abuse him had lived\nin his day they would probably have done the same. The tone of\nhis concluding remarks is not that of an intentional deceiver and\nknave. He says he \u201cbelieves the accounts given to be true and well\nattested,\u201d and that he \u201cleaves it to future writers to complete what\nhe has imperfectly sketched out, by further experience, which is\nalways the best instructor.\u201d No wonder, therefore, that his evident\nsincerity and the respectability of episcopal advocacy obtained\nbelief for the fable of the Kraken.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 12.\u2014Facsimile of De Montfort\u2019s \u201c_Poulpe\ncolossal_.\u201d]\n\nThe Norwegian bishop was a conscientious, if over-credulous man: but\nthe same cannot be said of Denys de Montfort, who, half a century\nlater not only professed to believe in the existence of the Kraken,\nbut also of another gigantic animal distinct from it; a \u201ccolossal\n_poulpe_,\u201d or octopus, compared with which Pliny\u2019s was a mere pigmy.\nIn a drawing fitter to decorate the outside of a showman\u2019s caravan\nat a fair than seriously to illustrate a work on natural history,[35]\nhe depicted this tremendous cuttle-fish as throwing its arms over\na three-masted vessel, snapping off its masts, tearing down the\nyards, and on the point of dragging it to the bottom, if the crew\nhad not succeeded in cutting off its immense limbs with cutlasses\nand hatchets. De Montfort had good opportunities of obtaining\ninformation, for he was at one time an assistant in the geological\ndepartment of the Museum of Natural History in Paris; and wrote a\nwork on conchology,[36] besides that already referred to. But it\nappears to have been his deliberate purpose to cajole the public; for\nit is reported that he exclaimed to M. Defrance: \u201cIf my entangled\nship is accepted, I will make my \u2018colossal poulpe\u2019 overthrow a whole\nfleet.\u201d Accordingly we find him gravely declaring[37] that one of the\ngreat victories of the British navy was converted into a disaster by\nthe monsters which are the subject of his history. He boldly asserted\nthat the six men-of-war captured from the French by Admiral Rodney\nin the West Indies on the 12th of April 1782, together with four\nBritish ships detached from his fleet to convoy the prizes, were all\nsuddenly engulphed in the waves on the night of the battle under such\ncircumstances as showed that the catastrophe was caused by colossal\ncuttle-fishes, and not by a gale or any ordinary casualty.\n\nUnfortunately for De Montfort the inexorable logic of facts not only\nannihilates his startling theory, but demonstrates the reckless\nfalsity of his plausible statements. The captured vessels did not\nsink on the night of the action, but were all sent to Jamaica to\nrefit, and arrived there safely. Five months afterwards, however,\na convoy of nine line-of-battle-ships (amongst which were Rodney\u2019s\nprizes), one frigate, and about a hundred merchantmen, were\ndispersed, whilst on their voyage to England, by a violent storm,\nduring which some them unfortunately foundered. The various accidents\nwhich preceded the loss of these vessels was related in evidence to\nthe Admiralty by the survivors, and official documents prove that De\nMontfort\u2019s fleet-destroying _poulpe_ was unequivocally a \u201cdevil-fish\nof fiction,\u201d and that the \u201cdevil-fish of fact\u201d had no part in the\ndisaster he ascribes to it.[38]\n\nI have been told, but cannot vouch for the truth of the report, that\nDe Montfort\u2019s propensity to write that which was not true, culminated\nin his committing forgery, and that he died in the galleys. But he\nrecords a statement of Captain Jean Magnus Dens, said to have been a\nrespectable and veracious man, who, after having made several voyages\nto China as master of a trader, retired from a seafaring life and\nlived at Dunkirk. He told De Montfort that in one of his voyages,\nwhilst crossing from St. Helena to Cape Negro, he was becalmed, and\ntook advantage of the enforced idleness of the crew to have the\nvessel scraped and painted. Whilst three of his men were standing on\nplanks slung over the side, an enormous cuttle-fish rose from the\nwater, and threw one of its arms around two of the sailors, whom it\ntore away, with the scaffolding on which they stood. With another\narm it seized the third man, who held on tightly to the rigging,\nand screamed for help. His shipmates ran to his assistance, and\nsucceeded in rescuing him by cutting away the creature\u2019s arm with\naxes and knives, but he died delirious on the following night. The\ncaptain tried to save the other two sailors by killing the animal,\nand drove several harpoons into it; but they broke away, and the men\nwere carried down by the monster. The arm cut off was said to have\nbeen 25 feet long, and as thick as the mizenyard, and to have had on\nit suckers as big as saucepan-lids. I believe the old sea-captain\u2019s\nnarrative of the incident to be true: the dimensions given by De\nMontfort are an embellishment of his own.\n\nIt is remarkable that there exists in the East a strong belief in the\npower of these animals to sink a ship and devour her crew. I have\nbeen told by a friend that he saw in a shop in China a picture of a\ncuttle-fish embracing a junk, apparently of about 300 tons burthen,\nand helping itself to the sailors, as one picks gooseberries off a\nbush. Mr. Laurence Oliphant, in his \u201cChina and Japan,\u201d describes a\nJapanese show, which consisted of \u201ca series of groups of figures\ncarved in wood, the size of life, and as cleverly coloured as Madame\nTussaud\u2019s wax-works. One of these was a group of women bathing in the\nsea. One of them had been caught in the folds of a cuttle-fish; the\nothers, in alarm, were escaping, leaving their companion to her fate.\nThe cuttle-fish was represented on a huge scale, its eyes, eyelids,\nand mouth being made to move simultaneously by a man inside the head.\u201d\n\nThe old stories of colossal cuttle-fishes, though gross\nexaggerations, are \u201cfounded on facts.\u201d They are based on the rare\noccurrence of specimens, smaller certainly, but still enormous, of\nsome known species. The means of observation on the duration of\ngrowth and life in the cephalopods have been, of course, difficult\nto obtain; but, from watching the rate of increase of size in young\nspecimens, De Ferussac, D\u2019Orbigny, and other naturalists have arrived\nat the conclusion that they sometimes live for many years, and\ncontinue to grow till the end of their lives. That some of them,\ntherefore, should attain to a considerable magnitude is hardly\nsurprising.\n\nPassing over the earlier records of the appearance of cuttle-fishes\nof unusual size, and the current as well as traditional belief in\ntheir existence by the inhabitants of many countries, let us take\nthe testimony of travellers and naturalists, who have a right to be\nregarded as competent observers.\n\nPeron,[39] the well-known French zoologist, mentions having seen\nat sea, in 1801, not far from Van Diemen\u2019s Land, at a very little\ndistance from his ship, \u201c_Le G\u00e9ographe_,\u201d a sepia (calamary?) of\nthe size of a barrel, rolling with noise on the waves; its arms,\nbetween 6 and 7 feet long, and 6 or 7 inches in diameter at the base,\nextended on the surface, and writhing about like great snakes.\n\nQuoy and Gaimard[40] report that in the Atlantic Ocean, near the\nequator, they found the remains of an enormous calamary, half-eaten\nby the sharks and birds, which could not have weighed less, when\nentire, than 200lbs.\n\nCaptain Sander Rang[41] records having fallen in with, in mid-ocean,\na species distinct from the others, of a dark red colour, having\nshort arms, and a body the size of a hogshead.\n\nMolina, in his \u201cNatural History of Chili,\u201d describes, amongst other\nspecies of cuttle-fishes, one, which he calls _Sepia tunicata_, and\nof which he says some specimens, armed with hooks in their suckers,\nweighed 150lbs.\n\nAlthough, in the face of recent discoveries, it is now comparatively\nunimportant, I may here mention that Schneider,[42] a most able and\nscrupulously careful naturalist, finding that, in many instances,\nMolina was utterly unworthy of confidence, plainly declared that it\nwas necessary to search in the works of others for description of the\nspecies of which he wrote, and expressed doubts of the correctness of\nhis assertions concerning the hook-furnished cuttle-fish on the coast\nof Chili. He could not discover the source whence Molina had derived\nhis information on this subject, but M. de Ferussac[43] found that he\nhad taken it from a translation of the narrative of Captain Cook\u2019s\nfirst voyage, and had dishonestly transferred to Chili a specimen\n(to which I shall presently refer), described by Sir Joseph Banks as\ncaptured in the South Seas, and which is now in the museum of the\nRoyal College of Surgeons. De Montfort quoted Molina, and, with his\nusual love of exaggeration, greatly embellished his description.\nShaw reproduced De Montfort\u2019s figure, and Leach and Lesueur accepted\nMolina\u2019s statements.[44]\n\nIn a manuscript by Paulsen, referred to by Professor Steenstrup, of\nCopenhagen, is a description of a large calamary cast ashore on the\nDanish coast, which the latter named _Architeuthis monachus_. Its\nbody measured 21 feet, and its tentacles 18 feet, making a total of\n39 feet.\n\nIn 1854 another was stranded at the Skag in Jutland, which Professor\nSteenstrup believed to belong to the same genus as the preceding,\nbut to be of a different species, and called it _Architeuthis\ndux_. The body was cut in pieces by the fishermen, and furnished\nmany wheelbarrow-loads. Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys[45] says Dr. M\u00f6rch\ninformed him that the beak of this animal was nine inches long. He\nadds that another huge cephalopod was stranded in 1860 or 1861,\nbetween Hillswick and Scalloway, on the west of Shetland. From a\ncommunication received by Professor Allman, it appears that its\ntentacles were 16 feet long, the pedal arms about half that length,\nand the mantle-sac 7 feet. The largest suckers examined by Professor\nAllman were three-quarters of an inch in diameter.\n\nWe have also the statement of the officers and crew of the French\ndespatch steamer, \u201c_Alecton_,\u201d commanded by Lieutenant Bouyer,\ndescribing their having met with a great calamary on the 30th of\nNovember, 1861, between Madeira and Teneriffe. They say that the\nbody of the creature, which, like Rang\u2019s specimen, was of a deep red\ncolour, measured 16 feet to 18 feet in length, without reckoning that\nof the formidable arms. The harpoons thrust into it drew out of its\nsoft flesh; so they slipped a rope with a running knot over it, which\nheld at the juncture of the fins; but when they attempted to haul\nit on board, the enormous weight caused the rope to cut through the\nflesh, and all but the hinder part of the body fell back into the sea\nand disappeared. M. Berthelot, the French Consul at Teneriffe, saw\nthe fins and posterior portion of the animal on board the \u201c_Alecton_\u201d\ntwo days afterwards, and sent a report of the occurrence to the Paris\nAcademy of Sciences.[46]\n\nThese are statements made by men who, by their intelligence,\ncharacter, and position, are entitled to respect and credence, and\nwhose evidence would be accepted without question or hesitation\nin any court of law. There is, moreover, a remarkable coincidence\nof particulars in their several accounts, which gives great\nimportance to their combined testimony. The public, after being\ndeceived by Pliny with his rapacious colossal polypus, and by Olaus\nMagnus, Pontoppidan and De Montfort with their fabulous or grossly\nexaggerated \u201cKraken,\u201d leaped hastily across the path of truth\nfrom easy gullibility on the one hand to unreasoning incredulity\non the other. \u201c_In medio tutissimus ibis_\u201d is a rule which may be\nsafely applied to this case, as to many others. The accumulated\nweight of such aggregate testimony as had been adduced should,\neven if unsupported by confirmatory facts, have been sufficient to\nconvince any thoughtful inquirer of the existence of very large\ncephalopods, individuals of which have occasionally been seen, and\ncorrectly described by some trustworthy observers, although absurdly\nexaggerated and misrepresented by others.\n\nBut fortunately, we are not left dependent on documentary evidence\nalone, nor with the option of accepting or rejecting, as caprice\nor prejudice may prompt us, the narratives of those who have told\nus they have seen what we have not. Cuttle-fishes of extraordinary\nsize are preserved in several European museums. In the collection of\nthe Faculty of Sciences at Montpellier is one six feet long, taken\nby fishermen at Cette, which Professor Steenstrup has identified\nas _Ommastrephes pteropus_. One of the same species, which was\nformerly in the possession of M. Eschricht, who received it from\nMarseilles, may be seen in the museum at Copenhagen. The body of\nanother, analogous to these, is exhibited in the museum of Trieste.\nIt was taken on the coast of Dalmatia. At the meeting of the British\nAssociation at Plymouth in 1841, Colonel Smith exhibited drawings\nof the beak and other parts of a very large calamary preserved at\nHaarlem; and M. P. Harting, in 1860, described in the Memoirs of the\nRoyal Scientific Academy of Amsterdam portions of two extant in other\ncollections in Holland, one of which he believes to be Steenstrup\u2019s\n_Architeuthis dux_, a species which he regards as identical with\n_Ommastrephes todarus_ of D\u2019Orbigny. Dr. J. E. Gray scientifically\ndescribed, many years ago, in his \u201cSpicilegia Zoologica,\u201d a specimen\nof _Sepioteuthis major_ from the Cape of Good Hope, the body of which\nmeasured 27 inches, the head 6 inches, and the fins and body 7\ninches each in breadth, and mentions one seen by Mrs. Graham, which\nhad arms 28 feet long.\n\nIn the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons are portions of an\n_Onychoteuthis_ or _Enoploteuthis_ (a squid, the suckers of which are\nfurnished with prehensile hooks), found floating by Drs. Banks and\nSolander between Cape Horn and the Polynesian Islands, and described\nas having been 6 feet in length, including the tentacular arms.[47]\nThe lower portion of the body, with the fins attached, in a dried and\nshrunken condition, is 18 inches long; the beak, 3\u00bd inches. A part of\none of its arms, with the hooked suckers, is also to be seen, which,\nhowever, being only the tip of one, gives no clue to its entire\nlength.\n\nStill there remained a residuum of doubt in the minds of naturalists\nand the public concerning the existence of gigantic cuttle-fishes\nuntil, towards the close of the year 1873, two specimens were\nencountered on the coast of Newfoundland, and a portion of one\nand the whole of the other were brought ashore and preserved for\nexamination by competent zoologists.\n\nThe circumstances under which the first was seen, as sensationally\ndescribed by the Rev. M. Harvey, Presbyterian minister of St. John\u2019s,\nNewfoundland, in a letter to Principal Dawson, of McGill College,\nwere, briefly and soberly, as follows:\u2014Two fishermen were out in\na small punt on the 26th of October, 1873, near the eastern end\nof Belle Isle, Conception Bay, about nine miles from St. John\u2019s.\nObserving some object floating on the water at a short distance they\nrowed towards it, supposing it to be the _d\u00e9bris_ of a wreck. On\nreaching it one of the men struck it with his \u201cgaff\u201d when immediately\nit showed signs of life, and shot out its two tentacular arms, as\nif to seize its antagonists. One of the men severed both arms with\nan axe as they lay on the gunwale of the boat, whereupon the animal\nmoved off, and ejected a quantity of inky fluid which darkened the\nsurrounding water for a considerable distance.\n\nThe men went home and magnified their adventure. They \u201cestimated\u201d\nthe body to have been 60 feet in length and 10 feet across the tail\nfin; and declared that when the \u201cfish\u201d attacked them \u201cit reared a\nparrot-like beak which was as big as a six-gallon keg.\u201d\n\nAll this Mr. Harvey appears to have been willing to believe, and\nrelates without the expression of a doubt. Fortunately, he was able\nto obtain from the fishermen a portion of one of the tentacular\narms which they had chopped off with the axe, and it is now in the\nSt. John\u2019s Museum. By careful calculation of its girth, the breadth\nand circumference of the expanded sucker-bearing portion at its\nextremity, and the diameter of the suckers, Professor Verrill, of\nYale College, has computed its dimensions as follows:\u2014Length of body\n10 feet; diameter of body 2 feet 5 inches. Long tentacular arms 32\nfeet; head 2 feet\u2014total length about 44 feet. The upper mandible of\nthe beak, instead of being \u201cas large as a six-gallon keg\u201d would be\nabout 3 inches long, and the lower mandible 1\u00bd inch long. From the\nsize of the large suckers relatively to those of another specimen\nto be presently described, he regards it as probable that this\nindividual was a female.\n\nIn November, 1874,\u2014about three weeks after the occurrence in\nConception Bay\u2014a calamary somewhat smaller than the preceding, but\nof the same species, also came into Mr. Harvey\u2019s possession. Three\nfishermen, when hauling their herring-net in Logie bay, about three\nmiles from St. John\u2019s, found the huge animal entangled in its folds.\nWith great difficulty they succeeded in despatching it and bringing\nit ashore, being compelled to cut off its head before they could get\nit into their boat.\n\nThe body of this specimen was over 7 feet long; the caudal fin 22\ninches broad; the two long tentacular arms 24 feet in length; the\neight shorter arms each 6 feet long, the largest of the latter\nbeing 10 inches in circumference at the base; total length of this\ncalamary 32 feet. Professor Verrill considers that this and the\nConception Bay squid are both referable to one species\u2014Steenstrup\u2019s\n_Architeuthis dux_.\n\nExcellent woodcuts from photographs of these two specimens were\ngiven in the \u201cField\u201d of January 31st, 1874, and December 13th, 1873,\nrespectively.\n\nIn the \u201cAmerican Journal of Science and Arts,\u201d of March, 1875,\nProfessor Verrill gives particulars of several other examples of\ngreat calamaries, varying in total length from 30 feet to 52 feet,\nwhich have been taken in the neighbourhood of Newfoundland since the\nyear 1870.\n\nThe following account of the still more recent capture of a large\nsquid off the west coast of Ireland was given in the \u201cZoologist\u201d\nof June, 1875, by Sergeant Thomas O\u2019Connor, of the Royal Irish\nConstabulary:\u2014\n\n\u201cOn the 26th of April, 1875, a very large calamary was met with on\nthe north-west of Boffin Island, Connemara. The crew of a \u2018curragh\u2019\n(a boat made like the \u2018coracle,\u2019 with wooden ribs covered with tarred\ncanvas) observed to seaward a large floating mass, surrounded by\ngulls. They pulled out to it, believing it to be wreck, but to their\nastonishment found it was an enormous cuttle-fish, lying perfectly\nstill, as if basking on the surface of the water. Paddling up with\ncaution they lopped off one of its arms. The animal immediately set\nout to sea, rushing through the water at a tremendous pace. The men\ngave chase, and, after a hard pull in their frail canvas craft, came\nup with it, five miles out in the open Atlantic, and severed another\nof its arms and the head. These portions are now in the Dublin\nMuseum. The shorter arms measure each 8 feet in length, and 15 inches\nround the base: the tentacular arms are said to have been 30 feet\nlong. The body sank.\u201d\n\nFinally, there is in the basement chambers of the British Museum\n(irreverently called the \u201cspirit vaults and bottle department,\u201d\nbecause fish, mollusca, &c., in spirits are there deposited) a\ntall glass jar, in which is preserved a single arm of a huge\ncephalopod, which, by the kindness and courtesy of the officers of\nthe department, I was permitted to examine and measure when I first\ndescribed it, in May, 1873. It is 9 feet long, and 10 inches in\ncircumference at the base, tapering gradually to a fine point. It has\nabout 300 suckers, pedunculated, or set on tubular footstalks, placed\nalternately in two rows, and having serrated, horny rings, but no\nhooks; the diameter of the largest of these rings is half an inch;\nthe smallest is not larger than a pin\u2019s head. This is one of the\neight shorter, or pedal, and not one of the long, or tentacular, arms\nof the calamary to which it belonged. Judging from the proportions of\nknown examples, I estimate the length of the tentacles at 36 feet,\nand that of the body at from 11 to 12 feet: total length 48 feet. The\nbeak would probably have been about 5 inches long from hinge socket\nto point. No history relating to it has been preserved; but Dr. Gray\ntold me that he believed it came from the east coast of South America.\n\nHere, then, in our midst, and to be seen by all who wish to inspect\nit, is, and has long been, a limb of a once-living cephalopod\ncapable of upsetting a boat, or of hauling a man out of her, or of\nclutching one engaged in scraping a ship\u2019s side, and dragging him\nunder water, as described by the old master-mariner, Magnus Dens;\npossessing, also, a beak powerful enough to tear him in pieces, and\ncrush some of his smaller bones. I confess that until I saw and\nmeasured this enormous limb, I doubted the accuracy of some early\nobservations which this specimen alone would suffice to prove worthy\nof confidence. The existence of gigantic cephalopods is no longer an\nopen question. I, now, more than ever, appreciate the value of the\nadage:\n\n                  \u201cTRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION.\u201d\n\n\n                              THE END.\n\n\n           BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] An interesting proof that the ancient Egyptians were also\nacquainted with other cephalopods has been communicated to me by Mr.\nEugenius Birch, the architect of the Brighton Aquarium. Whilst on\na journey to Nubia, up the Nile, in January, 1875, he visited the\ntemple of Bayr-el-Bahree, Thebes (date, 1700 B.C.), the entrance to\nwhich had been deeply buried beneath the light, wind-drifted sand\naccumulated during many centuries. By order of the Khedive access was\nrecently obtained to its interior by the excavation and removal of\nthis deep deposit; and amongst the hieroglyphics on the walls were\nfound, between the zig-zag horizontal lines which represent water,\nfigures of various fishes so accurately portrayed as to be easily\nidentified. With them was the outline of a squid 14 inches long. As\nthis temple is 500 miles from the delta of the Nile it is remarkable\nthat nearly all the fishes there represented are of marine species.\n\n[2] See page 49.\n\n[3] From the Greek words _cephale_, the head; and _poda_, feet.\n\n[4] From _octo_, eight; and _pous_ (_poda_), feet.\n\n[5] See an interesting article on the fossil and recent cephalopoda,\nby Henry Woodward, F.R.S., in the _Student_, Nos. xix. and xxii.\n\n[6] In the Appendix to Sir Edward Belcher\u2019s \u201cVoyage of the Samarang,\u201d\nMr. Arthur Adams, the Assistant Surgeon attached to the Expedition,\ngives some valuable information concerning the Argonaut, numerous\nspecimens of which he had opportunities of capturing in the South\nAtlantic, and observing. He says:\u2014\u201cThere is not the slightest vestige\nof any muscular attachment. This remarkable cephalopod carries\nabout her eggs in a light calcareous nest, which she firmly retains\npossession of by means of the broad, expanded, delicate membranes of\nthe posterior pair of tentacles. When disturbed or captured, however,\nshe loosens her hold, and, leaving her cradle to its fate, swims away\nindependent of her shell.\u201d He adds that \u201chaving once left her shell\nshe has not the ability, nor, perhaps, the sagacity, to re-enter her\nnest and resume the guardianship of her eggs.\u201d From observations of\nthe breeding habits of other octopods I doubt this.\n\n[7] Charlesworth\u2019s _Magazine of Natural History_, Sept. 1837; p. 393.\n\n[8] See page 27.\n\n[9] H. Woodward; op. cit.\n\n[10] \u201cThe dear devoured one,\u201d as a local journal called it, was at\nonce immersed in methylated spirits. The dog-fish was stuffed. Both\nare still preserved at the Aquarium.\n\n[11] The story of apprentices stipulating with their masters that\nthey should not be required to eat salmon on more than a specified\nnumber of days in a week\u2014a familiar illustration of satiety\nproducing not only indifference but disgust\u2014is probably, like\nmany other illustrations, over-drawn, and not wholly correct in\nits representation. For if, as has been suggested, the salmon the\nyouths objected to were often kelts, salted or fresh, their protest\nis hardly to be wondered at. No trace of such a stipulation has,\nhowever, been found in any old indentures.\n\n[12] See page 44.\n\n[13] \u201cNaturalis Histori\u00e6,\u201d lib. ix., cap. 29.\n\n[14] Voyage of the _Beagle_; p. 8.\n\n[15] \u201cTravels in Lycia.\u201d\n\n[16] A few days after the publication in _Land and Water_ of my\naccount of this occurrence, the following lines appeared in _Fun_.\nThey were written by its editor, poor dear Tom Hood, who loved all\nanimals\u2014birds, beasts, and fishes\u2014and delighted in conversing with me\nabout those under my care:\u2014\n\n          THE STRAYING \u2019TOPUS.\n\n    A LEGEND OF THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM.\n\n      Have you heard of the Octopus\u2014\n        \u2019Topus of the feelers eight\u2014\n      How he left his tank o\u2019po\u2019pus\n        Lump-fish to disintegrate?\n\n      To the lump-fish tank, as sprightly\n        As the Brighton coach, he\u2019d ride;\n      For two passengers he nightly\n        Found convenient room inside.\n\n      On his feelers, long and curly,\n        Homeward then he gently strode;\n      And you\u2019d have to get up early\n        To perceive him on the road.\n\n      But it happened Mr. Lawler,\n        Whom the lump-fish ought to thank,\n      Caught this very early caller,\n        \u201cDropt-in\u201d on his neighbours\u2019 tank!\n\n      For some weeks the world lump-fishious\n        Very strangely vanished had;\u2014\n      So the visit was suspicious,\n        And appearances were bad!\n\n      Well for him, this brigand larky\n        Was not brought before J. P.\n      (Neither clergy, nor squire-archy)\n        But to Mr. Henry Lee.\n\n      Said he, \u201cPunish on suspicion,\n        Is a thing I never will\u2014\n      Catch him in the same position;\n        Then I\u2019ll send him to the mill!\u201d\n\n      Treadmill is a wear-and-tear case,\n        And Octopus would, you see,\n      Do four men upon a staircase\u2014\n        Law, how tired the beast would be.\n\n[17] Professor Steenstrup says that almost every octopus he has\nexamined has had one or two arms reproduced, and that he has seen\nfemales in which all the eight arms had been lost, but were more\nor less restored; also a male in which the same was the case on\nseven of the arms,\u2014the hectocotylized limb alone being uninjured.\nHe adds that whilst the Octopoda possess the power of reproducing\nwith great facility and rapidity their arms which are exposed to so\nmany enemies, the Decapoda\u2014(the Sepiid\u00e6 and Squids)\u2014appear to be\nincapable of thus repairing and replacing accidental injuries.\u2014[See\nthe translation of his paper by Mr. W. S. Dallas, in the \u201cAnn. and\nMag. of Nat. Histy.\u201d of August, 1857; No. 116, 2nd series; p. 107.]\n\n[18] Several specimens of the hectocotylus in this condition may be\nseen in the Museum of Natural History, Paris.\n\n[19] Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys says:\u2014\u201cThe derivation of the word \u2018cuttle\u2019 is\ngiven in the \u2018Imperial Dictionary\u2019 as from the Saxon verb \u2018_cudele_;\u2019\nin Welsh, \u2018_cuziaw_;\u2019 and in the Armorican, \u2018_cuttaff_,\u2019 or\n\u2018_cuddyo_,\u2019 all signifying the sense of withdrawing or hiding; hence\nour pet word \u2018cuddle.\u2019\u201d\n\n[20] See page 94.\n\n[21] See page 93.\n\n[22] De quibusdam animalibus marinis. 1761.\n\n[23] The following interesting information, which appeared in the\n_Standard_ of December 25th, 1874, is derived from a Report on the\nTunisian Fisheries by Mr. W. Kirby Green, H.B.M. Consul at Tunis,\npublished in May, 1872.\n\n\u201cDuring Advent and Lent, the octopus is largely consumed by the\nOrthodox Greek Catholics, amongst whom the use of meat and fish is\nprohibited in those seasons of abstinence. This strange diet is\nchiefly obtained from Tunis, and in the Levant and Greek markets\nits trade name is \u201coctopodia\u201d or \u201cpolpi.\u201d The villages in the\nneighbourhood of Karkenah are the chief localities where this species\nof cephalopoda are obtained, and the produce of this fishery, in a\nyear of abundance, yields about 2,500 cwt. of polypi; in an average\nyear, about 1,800 cwt.; in a year of scarcity, 1,050 cwt. In a good\nseason the whole of the Island of Karkenah supplies about 3,000 cwt.;\nand the Jerbah waters a third of this quantity. On the shores from\nthe village of Luesa to that of Chneies, in the Gulph of Khabs, the\nnatives collect from four to five cwt. of octopods a day during the\nseason; but this supply generally serves for the consumption of the\nRegency. The remaining coast and islands may be calculated to furnish\na minimum of 650 cwt. to 700 cwt. of dried fish.\n\nThe octopods prefer the rocky shallows, and are found in those\nwaters, coming from the open sea, in the months of January, February,\nand March; but a considerable number remain permanently near the\nshore. It has been observed that when their fry are numerous from\nthe months of June to August, the fishery of the coming season is\nsure to be abundant, whilst the reverse is the case if they appear in\nnumbers in November and December. On the arrival of the octopods in\nthe shallows they keep in masses or shoals, but speedily separate in\nsearch of shelter among the rocks near the beach, covered by only one\nor two feet of water, and in stony localities prepared for them by\nthe fishermen, in order to facilitate the depositing of their spawn.\n\nIn deep water they are taken by means of earthen jars strung together\nand lowered to the bottom of the sea, where they are allowed to\nremain for a certain number of hours, and into which the fish\nintroduce themselves. Frequently from eight to ten octopods are\ntaken from every jar at each visit of the fishermen. In less deep\nwater earthenware drain pipes are placed side by side for distances\nfrequently exceeding half a mile in length, and in these also the\noctopods enter, and are subsequently captured. As they are attracted\nby all white, smooth, and bright substances, the natives deck\nplaces in the creek, and hollows of the rocks with white stones and\nshells, over which the polypi spread themselves, and so are caught\nfrom four up to eight at a time. But the most successful manner of\nsecuring these fish is pursued by the inhabitants of Karkenah, who\nform long lanes and labyrinths in the shallows by planting the butt\nends of palm branches at short distances from each other, and these\nconstructions extend over spaces of two or more miles. On the ebb of\nthe tides which in the Little Syrtis is considerable (ten feet), thus\ndiffering from the rest of the Mediterranean, the octopods are found\nin the pools inside the inclosures, and are easily collected by the\nfishermen, who string them in bunches, called \u201crisma,\u201d and from eight\nto ten of these, each containing 50 fish, are secured daily through\nthe season by every boat\u2019s crew of four men. The produce of this\nfishery could apparently be considerably augmented by the increased\nconstruction of palm butt labyrinths, which appear to have a peculiar\nattraction for the polypi, but it is doubtful whether the demand for\noctopods is capable of further development, for the consumption of\nthis product is restricted to the countries where the rigours of the\nfast of the Orthodox Greek Church are still observed.\n\nThe Tunisian Government claims a third of all the polypi fished upon\nits coast. The native fishermen, in general, sell their octopods\nto the merchants in anticipation, the latter making them pecuniary\nadvances, four or five months before the season, at a stipulated\nprice for the fish, which is seldom, however, below 20s. the cwt.\nShould the fishermen fail to supply the quantity contracted for,\nthe merchant is entitled to demand that they should procure for him\nthe requisite weight of fish elsewhere; but this power is rarely\nenforced, a new agreement being more frequently entered into for the\ncoming season, on proportionately favourable terms for the purchaser.\nAnother practice is also followed for the purchase of octopods. The\nmerchant makes an advance to the fishermen a month before the season,\nand receives back the value of his money at the first public sale, at\nthe current price, with an addition in his favour of 5 per cent. on\nthe amount disbursed.\n\nThe octopus has hitherto been prepared for exportation by simply\nsalting and drying, but it is now preserved either in oil or brine,\nafter subjecting it to a preliminary scouring and boiling process.\n\nThe price for octopods varies considerably, according to the size,\nsupply, and demand; but at Sfax a pair of fresh fish may cost,\nas circumstances rule, from 6_d._ to 1_s._ 3_d._ However, the\npreparatory maceration, by beating on a stone slab or rock, required\nbefore drying, entails a small additional expense, and brings the\nextremes of low and high prices to 25_s._ or 50_s._ per cwt. To the\ncost price must be added an export duty of 5_s._ 1_d._, and the\npurchaser ought to be careful to receive his merchandise from the\nseller during dry weather, as a damp day will add from 4 to 5 per\ncent. to the weight of every cwt.\n\nMalta receives the largest part of the Tunisian octopods, but they\nare only sent to that island for ultimate transmission to Greece and\nother parts of the Levant. Portugal is one of the few countries that\ncompetes with Tunis in supplying the Greek markets with polypi. In\nGreece, the octopods are either sold after being pickled, at from \u00a312\n16_s._ to \u00a315 9_s._ the cantar of 176lb., or in their original dried\nstate at from \u00a312 to \u00a314, but it must be understood that these prices\nare subject to considerable fluctuations arising from the favourable\nor unfavourable state of the season\u2019s fishery.\n\n[24] Travels in Lycia; by Lieut. (now Admiral) A. B. Spratt, R.N.,\nF.G.S., and Professor Edward Forbes, F.R.S.\n\n[25] The special correspondent at Gibraltar of the _Daily Telegraph_\n(Mr. George Augustus Sala) wrote as follows on this subject:\u2014For the\ninformation of Mr. Henry Lee, I may observe that nothing whatever\nis known at Gib. about the terrible octopus who is said to have\nsucked the boatswain of a man-of-war into the lowermost depths of\nDavy Jones\u2019s locker; but there are legends commonly recited in the\nsmoking-room of the King\u2019s Arms as to an octopus that held on to\na sharp rock with one set of suckers, and capsized a felucca from\nAlgeciras with the other. The Spaniards eat this horrible creature\nvery willingly. When they catch him, they first pound him violently\nbetween two stones, as some cooks are in the habit of thwacking\nbeefsteaks of which the tenderness is doubtful, and then they hang\nhim up in the sun until his abominable body and limbs are dried.\nUltimately they fry him in oil, and declare that he is very nice.\nI have an idea that I must have eaten fried octopus for supper at\nBobadilla, and that it was the delicacy which gave me such a thorough\ndisgust of the place. The octopus, nevertheless, under the name\nof _pulpo_, is popular enough throughout Southern Spain, and is\nequally common, and equally devoured, on the coast of Algeria and\nMorocco.\u2014_Daily Telegraph_, March 15, 1875.\n\n[26] A gentleman engaged in the cod-fishery, and residing at Fogo,\nNewfoundland, has told me that he was startled one evening by an\nunusual sound at the back of his house, which is at the head of the\nharbour, and the next morning found three barrels of squids dead on\nthe shore. The same gentleman received information, on the 29th of\nJune, 1873, of a gigantic squid having been picked up in Trinity Bay,\nand seen by Mr. Haddon, school inspector. It measured sixteen feet\nin length. The squid used so abundantly as bait in the Newfoundland\ncod-fishery is _Ommastrephes sagittatus_.\n\n[27] In Jonathan Couch\u2019s manuscript diary, which I have had the\ngratification of perusing, the following entry appears, dated\n1819:\u2014\u201cJohn Hotton (a fisherman of Polperro), informs me that some\ntime since he was at sea for the purpose of catching cuttles, when\nthe night was so dark, that, though cuttles were in plenty and\nfollowed the bait to the surface, he could not see to hook them.\nHe then desired his son to take a lanthorn, and hold it close to\nthe water so that he might see; when, to his surprise, a great many\ncuttles gathered round the light, and without bait or hook he caught\neighteen by hooking them with the rod (gaff). Since then he has more\nthan once put the same plan in practice with success.\u201d\n\n[28] \u201cIntellectual Observer,\u201d vol. ii., p. 164.\n\n[29] One of the recipes for \u201careca-nut tooth-powder\u201d is:\u2014\u201cGround\nareca-nuts, three parts; cuttle-bone, one part; flavour with cloves\nor cassia.\u201d\n\n[30] \u201cNaturalis Histori\u00e6,\u201d lib. ix., cap. 30. A.D. 77.\n\n[31] Lib. iii., cap. 6. De anim. A.D. 220 to 250.\n\n[32] \u201cHistoria de gentibus Septentrionalibus.\u201d A.D. 1555. Olaus\nMagnus, archdeacon, is frequently mistaken for Johan Magnus,\nArchbishop of Upsala.\n\n[33] \u201cNatural History of Norway,\u201d cap. 8. A.D. 1754.\n\n[34] Born 1643; died 1712.\n\n[35] \u201cHistoire Naturelle g\u00e9n\u00e9rale et particuli\u00e8re des Mollusques,\u201d\nvol. ii., p. 256.\n\n[36] \u201cConchyliologie Syst\u00e9matique.\u201d\n\n[37] \u201cHist. Nat. des Moll.,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 358 to 368.\n\n[38] De Montfort endeavoured to support his statements by so many\ninaccurate details, which by a considerable number of uneducated\npersons of his own nation were accepted as true, that I think some\nparticulars of the events above referred to may be interesting. My\ninformation is obtained from Rodney\u2019s despatches, and paragraphs of\ncontemporary naval news published in the \u201cGentleman\u2019s Magazine\u201d of\n1782 and 1783; from the \u201cAnnual Register\u201d of 1783; and from Capt. J.\nN. Inglefield\u2019s own account of the loss of his ship the \u201cCentaur,\u201d in\na rare pamphlet of thirty-nine pages, \u201cpublished by authority,\u201d and\ndated \u201cFayall, October 13th, 1782.\u201d\n\nIn Sir G. B. Rodney\u2019s action with the French fleet under the Count\nde Grasse, off St. Domingo, on the 12th of April, 1782, the man\u0153uvre\nof breaking the enemy\u2019s line, and separating some of his ships from\nthe remainder, was for the first time successfully put in practice.\nThe following captures were made by the British, viz.:\u2014The admiral\u2019s\nship, \u201c_Ville de Paris_,\u201d 104, which was a splendid present from\nthe City of Paris to Louis XV.; the \u201c_Glorieux_,\u201d 74; \u201c_C\u00e6sar_,\u201d\n74; \u201c_Hector_,\u201d 64; \u201c_Caton_,\u201d 64; \u201c_Jason_,\u201d 64; \u201c_Aimable_,\u201d 32;\nand \u201c_Ceres_,\u201d 18; besides one ship of 74 guns, sunk during the\nengagement. The \u201c_C\u00e6sar_,\u201d one of the best ships in the French fleet,\ntook fire on the night of the action, and, before the prisoners could\nbe removed from her, blew up. By this accident a lieutenant, the\nboatswain, and fifty Englishmen belonging to the \u201cCentaur,\u201d together\nwith about four hundred Frenchmen, perished. The remainder of the\nprizes were sent into Port Royal, Jamaica, to repair damages, and on\nthe 5th of May, 1782, Rodney wrote to the Admiralty announcing their\nsafe arrival in that harbour.\n\nOn the 26th of July following, a fleet and convoy, amongst which\nwere these ships, left Port Royal for England, under the command of\nAdmiral Graves in the \u201cRamilies.\u201d They encountered several very heavy\ngales of wind, and on the 16th of September, in lat. 42\u00b0 15\u2019, long.\n48\u00b0 55\u2019, a storm set in which lasted several days. About three A.M.\non the 17th, the wind, which had been blowing from S.E., suddenly\nshifted, and a brief lull was succeeded by a most violent squall,\nwith furious rain from N.N.W., which is described as \u201cexceeding in\ndegree everything of the kind that the oldest seaman in the fleet\nhad ever seen, or had any conception of.\u201d The \u201cRamilies\u201d went to the\nbottom soon after four P.M. on the 21st. Most of her crew were saved.\nThe \u201cCentaur\u201d foundered on the night of the 23rd, in lat. 48\u00b0 32\u2019,\nlong. 43\u00b0 20\u2019. Her captain, Inglefield, and eleven of her people, in\nthe pinnace, left her in a sinking state about five o\u2019clock on that\nevening, and after suffering severely for sixteen days, in the course\nof which one man, Thomas Matthews, quartermaster, died from cold and\nexposure, they landed at Fayall in an exhausted condition, having\nmade a voyage of more than 750 miles in a open boat. The \u201c_Glorieux_\u201d\nand the \u201c_Ville de Paris_\u201d also sank during the gale, and only one\nman of the crew of the latter vessel was saved, having been picked\nup on some floating wreck. His name was John Wilson, and he gave\nevidence at Portsmouth concerning the disaster on the 22nd of March,\n1783. The \u201c_Caton_,\u201d \u201cCanada,\u201d \u201c_Ardent_,\u201d and \u201c_Jason_\u201d escaped\nwith loss of spars and other damage. The \u201c_Hector_\u201d was attacked\nby two French frigates, left by them in a crippled condition,\nand sank\u2014many of the crew being saved by the \u201cHawkesnow,\u201d letter\nof marque. These are well-attested facts. De Montfort\u2019s fabulous\nstatement was, that on the night following the battle, the \u201c_Ville de\nParis_\u201d fired minute guns and made other signals of extreme distress,\nand that in consequence of this nine other men-of-war bore down to\nher assistance, converging on her as a common focus, and were all\nsimultaneously involved in her mournful fate\u2014that of being dragged\nbeneath the yawning waves by enormous _poulpes_. His pretended\nhistory, as well as his ingenious, but disingenuous theory, was drawn\nfrom his imagination; and the one is as false as the other is absurd.\n\n[39] \u201cVoyage de D\u00e9couvertes aux Terres australes.\u201d\n\n[40] \u201cVoyage de l\u2019Uranie: Zoologie:\u201d vol. i., part 2, p. 411. 1824.\n\n[41] \u201cManuel des Mollusques,\u201d p. 86.\n\n[42] \u201cBemerk, Uber die Gattung der Dintenfisch, etc.,\u201d 1793.\n\n[43] \u201cNote sur la Seiche \u00e0 six pattes, _Sepia hexopodia_ de Molina,\net sur deux autres esp\u00e8ces de Seiches signal\u00e9es par cet auteur.\u201d\n\n[44] De Ferussac severely denounces Molina\u2019s lack of truthfulness,\nand administers a rebuke which may be useful to some writers of the\npresent day. Whilst avoiding the imputation of wilful repetition\nand propagation of false-hood, he gravely censures the acceptance\nof error as truth. He says:\u2014\u201cThis suggests sad reflections on\nthe amplifications, reticences, and fantastic inventions of some\n_savants_, and on the absence of scrutiny apparent in some scientific\nworks. It should serve to prove, more and more, the necessity\nof careful examination before accepting or rejecting doubtful\nspecies, although it is more convenient to accept statements as\nthey are found, without taking the trouble to verify them by proper\nresearch. We know very well that the majority of naturalists, with\nthe exception of a small number of especially pains-taking men, are\nunaware of the negligence, the double use of incidents, and the\nrepetition of innumerable errors to which those who are content thus\nto work expose themselves.\u201d\n\n[45] \u201cBritish Conchology,\u201d vol. v., p. 124.\n\n[46] In the illustration of this occurrence given in M. Louis\nFiguier\u2019s book, \u201cLa Vie et les M\u0153urs des Animaux,\u201d and the English\ntranslations of it, the size of the calamary is so exaggerated that\nundeserved discredit has been brought by it on the narrators of the\nincident.\n\n[47] This is the specimen described by Molina.\n\n\n\n\n  TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n  Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been\n  corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within\n  the text and consultation of external sources.\n\n  Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,\n  when a predominant preference was found in the original book.\n\n  Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,\n  and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.\n\n  Pg viii: \u2018by De Ferrussac\u2019 replaced by \u2018by De Ferussac\u2019.\n  Pg 14: \u2018all his villany\u2019 replaced by \u2018all his villainy\u2019.\n  Pg 52: \u2018his hybernation\u2019 replaced by \u2018his hibernation\u2019.\n  Pg 99: \u2018Cart\u0153ia, in Grenada\u2019 replaced by \u2018Carteia, in Grenada\u2019.\n  Footnote [44]: \u2018some _savans_\u2019 replaced by \u2018some _savants_\u2019.","title":"The octopus : $b or, The \"devil-fish\" of fiction and of fact","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":38796}