8o THE OCTOPUS. 



rately as the "Archer-fish" {Toxotcs jaciilator), which by the 

 ejection of a drop of water from its mouth, brings down a fly from 

 a branch or leaf three or four feet above the surface of the water. 



With the purpose of testing the swimming powers of an 

 octopus, and making other observations connected with its mode 

 of progression through the water, I experimented with one in one 

 of the store tanks at Brighton. I had put him through his paces, 

 and brought him back to the starting-post several times after he 

 had swum to the further end of the tank, and at last the creature 

 became irritated. Instead of sinking to the bottom as he had 

 previously tried to do, he swam along the surface away from me 

 till he reached the back of the tank, where he sustained himself 

 motionless for an instant, and then shot forth a jet of water which 

 struck me on the breast, and drenched my shirt-front, though I 

 was five feet distant from him. 



I have known of many amusing instances of this squirting of 

 water or ink by the cuttle-fish startling the victim of it by its 

 unexpected suddenness. 



My deceased friend Tom Hood, unaware of this propensity of 

 the animal, hastened to lay hold of one which he had hooked in 

 Looe Harbour, and, receiving its jd d'eau full in his face, ex- 

 claimed that " he did not exactly know what he had on his line, 

 but he thought he had caught a young garden engine." 



Fishermen, when catching squid as bait, haul them up slowly 

 until they are nearly at the surface of the water, and then "gaif-' 

 them by the tail, and hold them at some distance from the boat, 

 to allow them to discharge their ink. The Rev. J. (^ Wood 

 mentions an incident of a naval officer's white-duck trousers being 

 *' de-decorated " with the liquid missile of a cuttle ; the aggrieved 

 individual asserting that it took deliberate aim for that purpose. 



During a Saturday night's chat with some Sussex fishermen 

 with whom I had often before held pleasant conversation on 

 matters appertaining to their craft, cuttle-fishes, sometimes called 

 by sailors " ink-spewers," were mentioned, and one of the party 



