THE OCTOPUS. 193 



and, from the presence of a bag containing a 

 black fluid, is sometimes called the ; pen-and-ink ' 

 fish; and third, the ' octopus.' 



The octopus as seen on our coasts, although 

 even here called a ' mansucker ' by the fisher- 

 men, is a mere Tom Thumb, a tiny dwarf, as 

 compared to the Brobdignagian proportions he 

 attains in the snug bays and long inland canals 

 along the east side of Vancouver Island, as 

 well as on the mainland. These places afford 

 lurking -dens, strongholds, and natural sea- 

 nurseries, where the octopus grows to an 

 enormous size, fattens, and wages war, with 

 insatiable voracity, on all and everything it 

 can catch. Safe from heavy breakers, it lives 

 as in an aquarium of smooth lake-like water, 

 that, save in the ebbing and flowing of the 

 tide, knows no change or disturbance. 



The ordinary resting-place of this hideous 

 ' sea-beast' is under a large stone, or in the wide 

 cleft of a rock, where an octopus can creep and 

 squeeze itself with the flatness of a sand-dab, or 

 the slipperiness of an eel. Its modes of loco- 

 motion are curious and varied : using the eight 

 arms as paddles, and working them alternately, 

 the central disc representing a boat, octopi row 

 themselves along with an ease and celerity 



VOL. i. o 



