50 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



where on the Shetland Isles, its body measuring seven 

 feet, and its arms sixteen feet in length. Very large 

 Cephalopoda are found in the Pacific, and also in 

 the Indian Seas, and are said to seize canoes, and drag 

 them down; and woe betide the unfortunate bather 

 should he happen to be taken in the grasp of one of 

 these monsters ; and on the authority of Sir Grenville 

 Temple, in Beale's ' History of the Sperm Whale/ an 

 anecdote is given, showing what happened in the 

 Mediterranean to a Sardinian captain, who was bathing 

 at Jerbeh. He felt one of his feet in the grasp of one 

 of these animals, and tried with his other foot to dis- 

 engage himself, but his limb was immediately seized 

 by another of the monster's arms. He then en- 

 deavoured with his hands to free himself, but these 

 also in succession were firmly grasped by the polypus, 

 and the poor man was shortly found drowned, with all 

 his limbs firmly bound together by the twining arms 

 of the fish ; and it is extraordinary, that where this 

 happened, the water was scarcely four feet deep. 

 Fredol, in ' Le Monde de la Mer/ states that the 

 famous diver, Piscinola, who at the desire of the 

 Emperor Frederick II., dived in the Straits of Messina, 

 saw, with much alarm, enormous Poulps attached to 

 the rocks, their arms several yards long, quite capable 

 of destroying a man. 



Pliny gives a description of the dangerous powers of 

 the polypus for destroying a human being in the water; 

 embracing his body, it counteracts his struggles, and 

 draws him under with its feelers, and its numerous 

 suckers.* It is said that the fishermen at the present 

 day, on the coast of Normandy, state that the polypus, 

 * Pliny, ' Nat. Hist/ vol. ii. bk. ix. chap. 48, and note. 



