70 IIAI'.ITS or TNI! I'KIMI \l.o|-o|).\. 



entire ray hangs like :i dead snake, a limp, lifeless ma^. And 

 thus the Indian stabs and stabs, until the octopus, deprived of 



:ill power to do harm, is draped inlo (lie canoe. ;i ^reat. inert, 

 quivering liiiiii) ot brown-looking jelly. LOUD. 



VI. Indian women arc reported to have IK-CM drowned by 

 brino clasped by hu^e Octopods whilst bathing in the racilie. 

 on the coasts oj' British A niei'ica. and amon<r the Indians an- 

 traditions of na rrow escapes. There is also a t radit ion anionij 

 the riiiiuso-aii Indians that about seventy years a^o a 1 wo-masted 

 vessel, with an oriental crew aboard, was sei/cd (at Milbank 

 Sound, lat, ;V2^ ) by an enormous squid, and was only rescued by 

 chopping its ti'iitacles with axes. Tin' Indians add that the 

 "evil inthience" of the scjiiid canse<l the subsequent wreck of the 

 vt-ssel at a point further south on the coast. (J. M. DAWSON. in 

 Nature. 



r Phe newspajters frequently contain accounts of the encounter^ 

 of submarine divers with u-iu-antie o-phalojxxls -. the followin 

 a I'ecent instance : 



A DiYKii AND A DKVIL-FISH. The diver cn^a^cd ;it the 

 Mo\ne Uiver, Helfast. in removing the reef, had a nai'row escape 

 Prom losino- Ins life on Thursday. It ai>i)eai's that Mr. Smale had 

 lirel olf a chariiv of dynamite and <lisplaced a laiu'e ([iiantity of 

 Stones at the bottom of the river. He went down to prepare for 

 these stones by the aid of chains into the punt. While 

 in rolling over a laru'c stone he s:i\v something which he 

 supposed at the time was a piece of dean-looking kelp moving 

 about in front of where he was working. In a few seconds the 

 object came in contact with the diver's arm. about which it 

 quickly coiled, partly hoi. lino- him. Immediately Mi". Smale 

 touched what was coih-d around his arm he became aware of his 

 position, and tried to extricate himself from the Lrrasp of a 

 -ea-devil." but found it far more difficult than he anticipated. 

 Catching hold of tin- part hanuinii from t he arm. he walked aloni:' 

 the bottom of t he river toward the end of it, when he saw he was 

 firmly held by one of the feelers of a lar^e Oelopus. bi-lter known 

 sailor- as t he devil-lisli." M r. Smale t ried to pull the 



"The Naturalist in British Columbia,' 3 i, m-J. 



