20 THE OCTOPUS. 



hold of the two great suckers with which it is furnished ; and others 

 which, Hke Caligus and Lepeotheims, have a water-tight carapace 

 with a flexible margin, are able to move rapidly over the body of 

 the fish in the same way. 



In his relation of the manner in which the octopus captures its 

 prey, the novelist is therefore substantially in accord with nature. 

 The points on which he chiefly errs, are — 



I St. The structure, use, capability, and effect on its victim, of its 

 arms and suckers. 



2nd. Its general organisation. 



3rd. Its mode of progression when swimming. 



4th. The manner in which it devours and digests its food. 



The arms are described as " encircling Gilliatt's whole body, 

 cutting into his ribs like cord; . . forming a ligature about his 

 stomach; . . enfolding and constricting his diaphragm like straps; 

 producing such compression that he could hardly breathe ; . . his 

 body almost disappearing under the folds of this horrible bandage; 

 its knots garotting him, its contact paralysing him." The suckers 

 are represented as being " like so many lips trying to drink your 

 blood; . . they bury themselves to the depth of an inch in the 

 flesh of their prisoner ; . . on contact with them your muscles 

 swell, the fibres are wrenched, and your blood gushes forth, and 

 mixes horribly with the lymph of the mollusc." 



The whole of this is fallacious. The arms of the octopus are 

 not used as weapons of constriction, compression, or suffocation. 

 They are eight radiating, supple, tapering thongs, in ordinary speci- 

 mens from eighteen inches to two feet long, on each of which are 

 mounted, in a double row, numerous sucking discs, which decrease 

 in size towards the tips of the limbs, and act as so many dry cup- 

 ping-glasses. There are normally about 240 of these suckers on 

 each arm, making a total of about 1,920. I have counted more 

 in some individuals. M. Hugo gives their number as " fifty on 

 each arm, 400 in all ;" so on this point he very much understates 

 his case. 



