TIABTTS OF TITE rKPirALOPOBA. 09 



centvo of the disk, wlu'i'c the heaked iiioutli seizes, and soon 

 sucks it in. 



I am perfectly sure, from fre(inent o])servations, tiie octopus 

 has the power of nund)in<i- its [)rey ; and the suckino;-disks alonor 

 eacli ray are nioiv for the purposes of clinihino- and liohlino- on 

 wliilst tishinsj-. than for captiirino- and detainiiio- slippery [»iis- 

 onei's. 



The Indian looks upon the octopus as an aldei'nian doi'S on 

 turtle, and devours it with equal gusto and relish, oidy the 

 savage roasts the glutinous carcase instead of boiling it. His 

 mode of catching octopi is crafty iu the extreme, for redskin well 

 knows, from past experience, that were the octopus once to get 

 some of its huge arms over the side of the canoe, and at the same 

 time a holdfast on the wrack, it could as easily haul it over as a 

 child could upset a basket. Paddling the cauoe close to the 

 rocks, and quietly pushing aside the wrack, the saA'age jjeers 

 through the crystal water, initil his practised eye detects an 

 octopus, with its great rope-like arms stiffened out, waiting 

 patiently for food. His spear is twelve feet long, armed at the 

 end with four ])ieces of hard wood, made harder by being baked 

 and charred in the fire: these project al)out fourteen inches 

 beyond the spear-haft, each i)ieee liaving a barb on one side, and 

 are arranged in a circle round the spear-end, and lashed firmly 

 on with cedar-bark. Having spied out the octopus, the huntei- 

 passes the spear carefully through the water until within an incii 

 or so of the centre disk, and then sends it in as deep as he can 

 plunge it. Writhing with pain ami passion, the Octopus coils 

 its terrible arms round the haft ; redskin, making the side of his 

 canoe a fulcrum for his spear, keeps the struggling monster Avell 

 off, and raises it to the surface of the water. He is dangerous 

 now ; if he could get a holdfast on either savage or canoe, nothing 

 short of chopping off the arms piecemeal woidd be of any avail. 



But the wily redskin knows all this, and has taken care to have 

 another spear unbarbed, long, straight, smooth, and very sharp, 

 and with this he stabs the octopus where the arms join the central 

 disk. I suppose the spear must break down the nervous gan- 

 glions sui)plying motive power, as the stabbed arms lose at once 

 strength and tenacity- ; the suckers, that a moment before held 

 on with a force ten men could not have overcome, relax, and the 



