THE SQUID AND OCTOPUS — BAETSCH. 



861 



the regency. The remaining coast and islands may be calculated to furnish a 

 minimum of 650 to 700 hundredweight of dried molluscs. 



The Tunisian Government claims a third of 

 all the polypi fished upon its coast. The sell- 

 ing price varies considerably according to the 

 size, supply, and demand, but at Sfax a pair 

 of them may cost, as circumstances rule, from 

 6d. to Is. 3d. ; however, the preparatory mace- 

 ration, by beating on a stone slab or rock, 

 required before drying entails a small addi- 

 tional expense and brings the extremes of low 

 and high prices to 25 or 50 shillings per hundredweight. To 

 the cost price must be added an export duty of 5s. Id. and 

 the purchaser ought to be careful to receive his merchandise 

 from the seller during dry weather, as a damp day will add 

 from 4 to 5 per cent to the weight of every hundredweight. 

 From two to three public sales of dried polypi take place 

 in a season on the island of Karkeuah; these are regulated 

 according to the abundance of the fish. The average price of 

 the last six years has been : During the first sale, from 45 to 

 50 shillings per hundredweight; second sale, 35 to 45 shil- 

 lings; third sale, 25 to 30 shillings. A few first parcels, in 

 order to secure an early market, have, however, occasionally 

 been sold for £5 the hundredweight. 



Malta receives the largest share of the Tunisian polypi, 

 but they are only sent to that island for ultimate transmis- 

 sion to Greece and other parts of the Levant. Portugal is one 

 of the few countries that competes with Tunis in supplying 

 the Greek markets with polypi. In Greece they are either 

 sold, after being pickled, at from £12 16s. to £15 9s. the cantar 

 of 176 pounds, or, in their original dried state, from £12 to 

 £14 ; but these prices fiuctuate according to the favorable or 

 unfavorable results of the season's fishing. 



We must not forget that while we see little of dried 

 or pickled octopi in our own country except in the 

 Chinese, Greek, and Italian markets of New York, 

 Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago, it would be 

 difficult to find a food dealer in the oriental markets 

 lacking in these choice dainties. 



So much, then, for the octopus, the 

 animal that in modern times has become 

 the emblem of selfishness and iniquity. 

 Let us next turn to the decapods, our 

 squids and cuttlefishes, for it is here 

 that we find the most wonderful mem- 

 bers of the group. Inch for inch, the 

 squids will compete in swimming power with any other creature that 

 lives in the sea. 



"Well do I recall the rude awakening to which I was subjected when 

 I tried to capture some slender Loligopsoid squids in the southern 



Fig. 



5.^ — Fishing for octopus 

 Japan. 



