CHAPTER V. 



THE OCTOPUS OUT OF WATER. 



Until by the establishment of aquaria opportunities were 

 furnished of observing the habits of the octopus in captivity, very 

 little was known as to the truth or otherwise of the statement 

 that it would sometimes voluntarily leave the water, and ramble 

 on land in search of food. Professor Edward Forbes" says that, 

 in the sudden falls, lasting not very long, of the sea-level, which 

 occur from various causes in the bays of the countries in and 

 around the ^Egean, this creature may be met with walking on the 

 exposed shore ; but he thinks it doubtful whether it ever wanders 

 of its own choice above the usual water-mark. 



Aristotle affirms that it comes out of the sea and walks in stony 

 places ; and Pliny tells of an enormous polypus (octopus) which 

 at Carteia, in Grenada— an old and important Roman colony, near 

 Gibraltar— used to come out of the sea at night, and carry off or 

 devour salted tunnies from the curing depots on the shore ; and 

 adds that the head of it, when it was at last killed, was found to 

 weigh 7oolb. ^Elian records a similar incident, and describes his 

 monster as crushing in its arms the barrels of salt fish to get at 

 the contents. These old writers seem to have aimed rather at 

 making their histories sensational than at carefully investigating 

 the credibility or the contrary of the highly-coloured reports 

 brought to them. They were, of course, gross exaggerations; but 

 there is a substratum of truth in them j and in the proceedings of 

 an octopus in the Brighton Aquarium we may recognise the living 



* "Travels in Lycia." 



