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I N A G U A 



these tentacles it was finished, for in their method of attack- 

 ins^, the octopi utilize one of the most efficient systems devised, 

 a principle more certain than curving claws or the sharpness 

 of teeth. Only the hand of man with its opposable thumb is 

 superior. 



The feel of these vacuum cups on the bare flesh is most un- 

 usual. It is not unpleasant, and in a small specimen, gives the 

 sensation of hundreds of tiny wet clammy hands pulling at 

 the skin. The strength of the suckers is amazing. AVhen I tried 

 to lift the youngster off my wrist it clung tenaciously and even 

 when I had dislodged all the tentacles except one I still had to 

 give a strong pull in proportion to its size to release the suckers. 

 There have been cases in which the tentacles have been torn 

 apart before the suckers released their grip. These suckers, 

 which operate on much the same principle as the little rubber 

 cups with which we attach objects to automobile windshields, 

 are actuated by a muscular piston. The rim of the cup is 

 fastened to an object, then the floor of the center is raised and 

 retracted to form a vacuum. The cups, I found, would slip 

 easily from side to side but when pulled directly exercised con- 

 siderable power. In the octopods the suckers are sessile, or are 

 mounted on low mounds; the squids carry the mechanism a 

 bit further and produce them on stalks. In the giant squid the 

 rim of the suckers are even equipped with fine teeth to render 

 them more efficient. Whalers have recorded capturing whales 

 with dozens of circular scars on their heads, inflicted in gar- 

 gantuan battles with these monsters of the open ocean. Some 

 of these scars have measured over two inches in diameter so 

 that the creatures that possessed them must have been huge. 



Flow large do the squid and octopi grow? There is an au- 

 thentic record of a North Atlantic squid which measured fifty- 

 two feet over all! Its tentacles had an abnormal reach of thirty- 

 five feet and the remaining seventeen feet was taken up by the 



