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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



where, with its powerful iron-like beak, it crushes the helpless form, and 

 swallows or drhiks it down, as Victor Hugo says. 



My own experience with these creatures has been principally in the 

 Bermudas. They are there caught in basket-traps, formed of wood. 

 With a trap baited with mussel, crab, or lobster, of which the octopus 

 is particularly fond, we row along the island-shore, among the more 

 rocky parts, until we discover some indication of the animal's retreat. 

 Their hiding-places can only be discovered by experts, but one of the 

 trails by Avhich they are traced is the presence of dead shells in un- 

 usual quantities, particularly skeletons of crabs, which will be pretty 

 certainly seen near the water's edge, or at the mouth of the cave 

 inhabited by a " devil." The clearness of the waters greatly aids in 

 the search. When a promising location is reached, we throw over- 

 board the trap, which sinks to the bottom of some ledge, or rests upon 

 a reef of coral. A rope, which is attached to it, is secured to a buoy 

 to mark its place on the surface of the sea, and it is left for twenty-four 

 hours. Then we return and haul it up, and, if the place of deposit has 

 been well chosen, we shall soon see the long arms of Mr. Devil protrud- 

 ing through the basket, searching and stretching in all directions, seek- 

 ing to understand how it is that positions have become so reversed 

 — that he is the captured instead of the capturing party. His color 

 changes with anger and vexation, and his body then displays numerous 

 bunches or tubercles, which always appear when the animal anticipates 

 danger. 



The trap being opened, we seize him quickly by what we must call 

 neck, the portion between the head and trunk, while his eight arms 

 or legs, as you may choose to call them, are struggling and twisting in 

 all directions, sometimes becoming attached to our own arms and twin- 



FiG. 3.— An Octopus running. 



ing about them. Those which I caught and handled had arms of re- 

 markable softness and suppleness, so that their contact felt more like a 

 running liquid upon my flesh than a structural substance ; * and, indeed, 

 though so formidable under certain circumstances, the preponderance 

 of fluidity in their composition may be judged from the fact that I my- 

 ^ This lack of tension probably resulted from my pressure upon the neck. 



