i6 THE OCTOPUS. 



to find on the rocks ; and, now, it became necessary to search 

 for one more meal before his departure. Profiting by the low 

 tide, and taking his knife between his teeth, he descended, by the 

 help of hands and feet, the steep escarpment into a pool. The 

 water came up to his shoulders. During his search for lobsters, 

 crayfish, and crabs, he espied a cavern, the arched portal of 

 which was partly uncovered. He entered. A fine crab, fright- 

 ened at his approach, escaped into a horizontal fissure in the 

 rock. He thrust his hand into the crevice, and suddenly felt 

 himself seized. Something slender, rough, adhesive, chilling, and 

 living, was twisting itself in the gloom around his naked arm. It 

 proved to be one of the limbs of d^pieuvre (octopus), or "devil-fish," 

 and he had a terrible fight with the creature. It will be con- 

 venient to consider in detail the particulars of the combat after 

 finishing our epitome of the narrative of which it fills the most 

 remarkable chapters. Gilliatt, after a desperate struggle, suc- 

 ceeded in cutting himself free, and in killing the animal with his 

 knife ; and then, panting with his exertions, turned to leave the 

 place where he had encountered so dangerous a foe. As he did 

 so, something which startled him caught his eye. He fancied he 

 saw at the back of the cavern a face which laughed at him. He 

 approached, and stooping down, found it was a human skull, with 

 the rest of the skeleton. It was surrounded by a multitude of 

 crabs, but they were dead and their shells empty. It was the larder 

 of the "devil-fish"; the monster had eaten the crabs; the crabs 

 had eaten the man. There were no articles of clothing to be seen ; 

 but, scraping away the crab-shells beneath which the skeleton 

 was half buried, Gilliatt perceived around the vertebral column a 

 leather belt, which had evidently been buckled about the body of 

 the man before his death. The leather was wet, the buckle rusty ; 

 so Gilliatt cut the girdle with his knife. It contained an old iron 

 tobacco-box, which he forced open, and found in it three hank-notes 

 of £^1000 each (75,000 francs), and twenty guineas in gold. He 

 examined the belt more closely; and there, traced in indelible 



