160 



NATURAL HISTOKY. 



OCTOPUS HORRIDUS. 



my left hand. And now the fight commenced ; the more I struck him, the tighter he squeezed, until 

 my arm got quite benumbed, but after a while I found the grip began to relax a little, but he held on 

 until I had almost cut him to pieces, and then he relaxed his hold from the rock, and I pulled him up. 

 I can assure you I was completely exhausted, having been in that position for over twenty minutes. 



I brought the animal up, or rather a part of it. We laid him 

 out, and he measured over eight feet across, and I feel perfectly 

 convinced that this fellow could have held down five or six 

 men. It is only when a person gets a grip from these brutes 

 that one realises their strength, and it was lucky for me that 

 I was not an amateur, for I can assure you that I had the 

 greatest struggle to get clear of it that I have ever had with 

 any animal under water."* 



"The Octopus, like many other prednceous animals who seek 

 their prey by night, habitually returns to skulk in the same 

 retreat in the daytime. This practice enabled the resident 

 Octopus of the Brighton Aquarium to enjoy, for many weeks, 

 the run of all the neighbouring tanks by night undetected, 

 for, like the celebrated robber Peace, he was always to be found at home in the morning. But the 

 rate at which he thinned the young Lump-fishes in an adjoining tank led to grave suspicion, and after 

 too hearty a meal one evening he imprudently stayed out all night, and was ' caught red-handed, 

 gorged to distention, next morning, in the Lump-fishes' abode. 



" On another occasion two Octopuses, kept in the same tank, also took to nocturnal roaming. 

 Leaving their own residence after dark, one went east and the other went west, and, as if by preconcerted 

 plan, neither was content merely to cross the frontier and visit his nearest neighbours, but both passed 

 through, or over, one intervening tank, and settled down amongst the tribes beyond. One of them 

 found himself in a Brobdingnag of crabs a colony of giants 

 too strong to be successfully invaded even by an. armada of 

 Octopods. If he had arrived at Lilliput instead a tank 

 inhabited by pigmy crustaceans he would soon have do- 

 populated it, by clutching in his hateful embrace more 

 victims per diem than ever an unwelcome foul-mouthed 

 dragon of old demanded as his daily dole of youths and 

 maidens, to satisfy his inconvenient preference for their flesh 

 as his daintiest dish. The other traveller found his way into 

 Lobsterdom, and putting on a bold front, proceeded to ff 

 attack the chief. The Lobster, though evidently alarmed, 

 ' showed fight,' and the intruder was obliged to retreat, and 

 seek refuge in a cranny of the rockwork. Although the 

 Lobster which bore the brunt of the attack was a very 

 large one, I was at the time surprised that it so decisively 

 vanquished the invader as to save from destruction the other 

 smaller specimens of its kind, which were its companions. For it is an old notion, still generally 

 believed by fishermen, that if an Octopus approaches a ' pot ' or ' stalker ' in which are Lobsters 

 that have been entrapped, they will cast off their claws, and become literally sick with fright. 



" In localities where the Octopus abounds, the Crustacea probably learn to regard it as an enemy to 

 be dreaded, but this is certainly not the case with those which I have had opportunities of observing. 

 The common Crabs, on which this animal is habitually fed in the Aquarium, have no knowledge of 

 their danger in its presence. When tossed into the tank, they frequently run towards the monster who 

 is waiting to devour them, and even scramble on to and over his back. It may be that, as in countries 

 previously unvisited by man, the birds and beasts, unacquainted with his destructive powers and 

 carnivorous habits, show no fear of him at first sight, so the Crabs and Lobsters at Brighton so 

 rarely see an Octopus in their native haunts, that they have not learned to recognise their deadly foe."f 

 * Illustrated Australian News. No. 183. Melbourne, Nov. 28, 1879 ; p. 187. t Henry Lee : " Aquarium Notes." 



OCTOPUS MACROPUS. 



