IN DEFENSE OF OCTOPUSES 295 



third or fourth meeting with the octopus of the valley. I had 

 been going down for a half hour or so each day near the same 

 spot in the reef and almost always finished the day's dive with 

 a final excursion to the limit of the hose on the base of the 

 ravine. In these trips I saw a number of octopuses, mostly much 

 smaller than the first. These seemed to live in the crevasses near 

 the base of the reef, and often all that I saw of them was a ten- 

 tacle or two twitching or writhing languidly from a fissure. 

 Some I discovered by the neat piles of mussel shells and other 

 mollusks near the entrances to their hiding places. Some of 

 these shells were, surprisingly, unopened and, it can be assumed, 

 were being stored against an hour of larger appetite. Also, most 

 interesting, the only localities on Inagua where the mussels 

 were to be found in any abundance was in the area of the surf, 

 a living habit that might be attributed to the ceaseless raids of 

 octopods on colonies in more peaceful localities. The mussels, 

 in self defense as it were, had established themselves in the only 

 place where they might live undisturbed, which was, in con- 

 tradiction, the most violent area of all the world of underwater. 

 They were, so to speak, between the devil and the deep blue 

 sea, or to be more exact, between the devil and the hot dry air. 

 Most of these octopods were exceedingly shy, fleeing into 

 their shelters at my approach, and drawing far back out of 

 reach, a reaction quite at variance with the accepted theories 

 of ferocity and malignancy. I tried to capture some of the 

 smaller ones, but they were too fast for me. The big fellow on 

 the slope of the ravine, however, while it did not seem quite so 

 timid always gave me a wide berth and invariably, the few 

 times I encountered it, withdrew to its fissure where it was 

 never quite hidden, but was revealed by a portion of the body 

 and the restless arms. At first I left it strictly alone, but curi- 

 osity about its peculiar color changes, prompted me to come 

 closer. 



