THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



in a few minutes. It is more virulent in the common 

 octopus than in the cuttle-fish and in common squids, 

 in which the glands are smaller. In eating a crab the 

 octopus shows some skill and discrimination, usually 

 pulling off the back first, eating the viscera and then 

 discarding the back, after which it pulls off the legs one 

 by one, cleaning them out and dropping them one by 

 one until the meal is finished. 



Cephalopods do not always have it all their own way — 

 they are sometimes killed by the shellfish that they 

 attack. Even large octopuses may get one or more of 

 their searching arms gripped between the shells of a 

 clam. It has been said that fierce struggles sometimes 

 develop between cephalopods and giant shellfish. But the 

 chief enemies of many of the best known species of octo- 

 puses are eels — some of the morays and congers having 

 powerful bodies and stiletto-like teeth. When a large eel 

 finds a small octopus it swallows it whole. But if the 

 octopus is a big one the monster eel may use a different 

 technique: forming a loop with its tail, and sliding its 

 head (wrapped in its foe's arms) backwards through the 

 loop, thus forcing the arms off its slippery body — and all 

 the while gulping the octopus farther down its throat. 

 Sometimes a conger or moray eel may bite off one or 

 more of the writhing arms, if the octopus gives it an 

 opportunity. 



Squids can apparently travel much faster than octo- 

 puses. Lane, who has assembled numbers of remarkable 

 facts regarding the speeds of all kinds of living creatures, 

 estimates that (judging by evidence available) large 

 squids can race through the water at speeds up to twenty 

 miles an hour. 



The flying squids of the genus Onychoteuthis are so 

 described from their habit of leaping from the sea. They 

 pump sea water into themselves and release it in forceful 

 streams until they attain a considerable speed. The 

 flying squids of the genus Onychoteuthis are said to unfold 



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