328 OUT OF DOORS. 



from his hole, and let himself sink gently on the sand. 

 Next he began to crawl, using his arms by way of legs, 

 and ending by standing on two of them, while with the 

 others he explored the rock he meant to scale. Then 

 he showed us his skill in climbing, stretching the arms 

 to their fullest length, fixing the suckers, and thus 

 drawing his body up. That done, he suddenly shot 

 through the water backwards, propelled partly by water 

 ejected from a tube called a siphon, and partly by the 

 contraction of the webbed base of the foot. 



Finally he sank again to the sand, and went 

 through a number of movements, which we can literally 

 call evolutions, as they seemed to be intended for the 

 purpose of showing the mobility of the arms, and the 

 extraordinary and complicated curves and knots into 

 which they could be thrown. Whether induced by 

 example, or by the spirit of competition, we cannot say, 

 but two other cuttles came from their hiding-places, 

 and we had presented to us the unwonted spectacle of 

 three living cuttles all in view at the same time. This 

 was the more noticeable because an attendant had in 

 vain tried to dislodge them. No endeavour of his had 

 the least effect, but almost as soon as he had desisted 

 they came out of their own accord. Very human in- 

 deed. At last the octopus concluded his performance 

 by -retiring to his old home, a hole into which he 

 gradually packed himself in a manner that irresistibly 

 reminded us of Baron Bradwardine insinuating himself 

 into his ' Patmos.' What more can we say ? We could 



