THE KRAKEN. 349 



since come under my notice. Sir Grenville Temple, in his 

 1 Excursions in the Mediterranean Sea,' tells how a Sardinian 

 captain, whilst bathing at Jerbeh, was seized and drowned 

 by an octopus. When his body was found, his limbs were 

 bound together by the arms of the animal ; and this took 

 place in water only four feet deep. 



Mr. J. K. Lord's account of the formidable strength of 

 these creatures in Oregon is confirmed by an incident 

 recorded in the Weekly Oregonian (the principal paper of 

 Oregon) of October 6th, 1877. A few days before that 

 date an Indian woman, whilst bathing, was held beneath 

 the surface by an octopus, and drowned. The body was 

 discovered on the following day in the horrid embrace of 

 the creature. Indians dived down, and with their knives 

 severed the arms of the octopus and recovered the corpse. 



Mr. Clemens Laming, in his book, * The French in Al- 

 giers,' writes : 



" The soldiers were in the habit of bathing in the sea every evening, 

 and from time to time several of them disappeared no one knew 

 how. Bathing was, in consequence, strictly forbidden ; in spite of 

 which several men went into the water one evening. Suddenly one of 

 them screamed for help, and when several others arushed to his assist- 

 ance they found that an octopus had seized him by the leg by four 

 of its arms, whilst it clung to the rock with the rest. The soldiers 

 brought the 'monster' home with them, and out of revenge they 

 boiled it alive and ate it. This adventure accounted for the disap- 

 pearance of the other soldiers." 



The Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, who for more than a quarter 

 of a century has resided as a missionary amongst the in- 

 habitants of the Hervey Islands, and with whom I had the 

 pleasure of conversing on this subject when he was in 

 England in 1875, described in the Leisure Hour of April 

 2Oth, 1 872, another mode of attack by which an octopus might 

 deprive a man of life. A servant of his went diving for 



