TO TIATJTTS OF THK CEPIIALOPOOA. 



entire ray lianas like a dead snake, a limp, lifeless mass. And 

 tlins the Indian stahs and stabs, nntil the octopus, deprived of 

 all ])ower to do harm, is dragged into the canoe, a great, inert, 

 quivering lump of brown-looking jelly. — Lord.* 



\'l. Indian women are reported to have been drowned by 

 being clasped by huge Octopods whilst bathing in the Paciiie, 

 on the coasts of British America, and. among the Indians are 

 traditions of narrow escapes. There is also a tradition among 

 the Chimsgau Indians that about seventy years ago a two-masted 

 vessel, with an oriental Crew aboard, was seized (at Milbank 

 Sound, lat. 52°) by an enormous squid, and was only rescued by 

 chopping its tentacles with axes. The Indians add that the 

 " evil influence " of the squid caused the sul)seqnent wreck of the 

 vessel at a point further south on the coast. — G. M. Dawson, in 

 Nature. 



The ncws]ia])ers frequently contain accounts of the encounters 

 of submarine divers with gigantic cephalopods ; tlie following is 

 a recent instance : 



A I)ivj:r and a I) evil-Fish. — The diver engaged at the 

 Moyne River, Belfast, in removing the reef, had a narrow escape 

 from losing his life on Thursday. It api)ears that Mr. Smale had 

 fired off a charge of dynamite and disi)laccd a large (piantity of 

 stones at the bottom of the river. He went down to prepare for 

 lifting these stones b}^ the aid of chains into. the punt. While 

 engaged in rolling over a large stone he saw something which he 

 supposed at the time was a piece of clean-looking kelp moving 

 about in front of where he was working. In a few seconds the 

 object came in contact w-ith the diver's arm, about whicli it 

 quickly coiled, partly holding him. Immediately Mr. 8male 

 touched what was coiled around his arju he became aware of his 

 position, and tiled to extricate himself from the grasp of a 

 "sea-devil," but found it far more difficult than he anticipated. 

 Catching hold of the part hanging from the arm, he walked along 

 the bottom of the river toward the end of it, when he saw he was 

 firmly held by one of the feelers of a large Octopus, better known 

 among sailors as the " devil-fish.'' Mr. Smale tried to pull the 



The Xaturalist in P.iitisli ('nlMiiibia;' i, 19'3, 18GG. 



