their enemy, the squid. Now such things were con- 

 trary to reason, if not to what I had read ... It 

 presently became only too plain that this creature 

 had in some way been injured and was sick unto 

 death. 



At this point I resolved upon its capture. Aside 

 from the feeble effort with which it had ap- 

 proached the spot where I was standing, it made 

 no further attempt to swim, remaining resting on 

 the mussels without betraying any other sign of 

 life than a scarcely perceptible expansion and con- 

 traction of the sides of its body — a rhythmic suc- 

 tioning and discharging of water by the mantle — 

 the way in which it breathes. To accomplish my 

 purpose, it was necessary that I cut off the retreat 

 of the animal by taking a circuitous route and 

 coming upon it from the opposite direction; for I 

 was without a net or other means of taking it, and 

 was, therefore, obliged to capture it, if possible, 

 solely with my hands. 



In the instance of this particular creature, this 

 was a project far more facilely accomplished than 

 I anticipated. But what I learned from later ex- 

 perience with Loligo, it is only by the utmost 

 stealth that the stalker can hope to apprehend this 



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