130 The Cuttle-fish or Squid 



with a grip that only the tearing off of the sucker will 

 release in many cases. Like the sharks, the Octopoda 

 are true scavengers, eating anything eatable which 

 comes in their way, but unlike the sharks they also 

 manage to get a good deal of living food, quite large 

 fish being often found in their clutches undergoing 

 process of demolition. In common with all the 

 moUusca, and more or less with fish generally, their 

 digestive powers are amazing, the food, a fish for 

 instance a foot long, being digested almost as it descends 

 into the maw. They are nearly all stomach and 

 tentacles, the other organs being insignificant. But 

 again, like all their near and distant relatives, they 

 pay a heavy penalty for their inability to grow a back- 

 bone, and incidentally for their succulence consequent 

 upon their appetite. No food is so much loved by 

 all fish of whatever kind in the sea as the flesh of the 

 Cephalopoda. Having no bones, and in most cases 

 no external armour to protect it, it falls a ready prey 

 to fish large enough to withstand the pressure of its 

 clutching arms and the onslaught of its tearing beak. 

 And although, like fish, it is oviparous and extremely 

 prolific, it does not increase in numbers to any extent, 

 from the fondness of other fish for the immature 

 Octopod ; and it has, like fish, no idea of maternal 

 care. 



Now I would gladly, if I could, say a good word 

 for the Octopus on my root-principle of justice for 

 all. But I admit that it is very difficult. I do not 

 see, cannot see, why the Octopus is, except for the 

 purpose of providing abundant succulent food for 

 shapely fish prowling along the shallow sea-bed. But 

 that remark only goes to show the depth of my 

 ignorance, common to all of us who study the fauna 

 of the sea, of the real conditions of their lives. One 



