56 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



reptile, the Ichthyosaurus, also, preyed upon them ; and 

 portions of the horny rings of their suckers were discovered 

 in its coprolites by Dean Buckland. Amongst the worst 

 enemies of the octopus is the conger. They are both rock- 

 dwellers, and if the voracious fish come upon his cephalopod 

 neighbour unseen, he makes a meal of him, or, failing to 

 drag him from his hold, bites off as much of one or two 

 of his arms as he can conveniently obtain. The conger, 

 therefore, is generally the author of the injury which the 

 octopus has been unfairly accused of inflicting on itself. 



Continuing our comparison with the hydra, we have in 

 the octopus an animal capable of quitting its rocky lurking- 

 place in the sea, and going on a buccaneering expedition 

 on dry land. Many incidents have been related in con- 

 nection with this ; but I can attest it from my own obser- 

 vation. I have seen an octopus travel over the floor of a 

 room at a very fair rate of speed, toppling and sprawling 

 along in its own ungainly fashion ; and in May, 1873, we 

 had one at the Brighton Aquarium which used regularly 

 every night to quit its tank, and make its way along the 

 wall to another tank at some distance from it, in which 

 were some young lump-fishes. Day after day, one of these 

 was missing, until, at last, the marauder was discovered. 

 Many days elapsed, however, before he was detected, for 

 after helping himself to, and devouring a young "lump- 

 sucker," he demurely returned before daylight to his own 

 quarters. 



Of this habit of the octopus the ancients were, also, fully 

 aware. Aristotle wrote that it left the water and walked 

 in stony places, and Pliny and ^lian related tales of 

 this animal stealing barrels of salt fish from the wharves, 

 and crushing their staves to get at the contents. An 

 octopus that could do this would be as formidable a 



