A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



crab is let down into his grotto by an attendant for the 

 edification of the visitors the octopus seems to regard 

 it with only lukewarm interest. If he deigns to go in 

 pursuit, it is with the air of one who says, "Anything 

 to oblige," rather than of eagerness for a morsel of food. 

 Yet withal, even though unhurried, he usually falls 

 upon the victim with surprising sureness of aim, en- 

 compassing it in his multiform net. Or perhaps, think- 

 ing the game hardly worth so much effort, he merely 

 reaches out suddenly with one of his eight arms each 

 of which is a long-drawn-out hand as well and grasps 

 the victim and conveys it to his distensible maw with- 

 out so much as changing his attitude. 



All this of the giant octopus brown and warty and 

 wrinkled and blase. But the diminutive cousin in the 

 grotto with the jellyfishes is a bird of quite another 

 feather. Physically he is constructed on the same 

 model as the other, but his mentality is utterly opposed. 

 No grand roles for him ; his part is comedy. He finds 

 life full of interest. He is satisfied with himself and 

 with the world. He assumes an aspect of positive 

 rakishness, and intelligence, so to say, beams from his 

 every limb. All day long he must be up and doing. 

 For want of better business he will pursue a shrimp for 

 hours at a time with the zest of a true sportsman. 

 Now he darts after his intended prey like a fox-hound. 

 Again he resorts to finesse, and sidles off, with eyes fixed 

 in another direction, like a master of stratagem. To be 

 sure, he never catches the shrimp but what of that? 

 The true sportsman is far removed from the necessity 

 for mere material profit. I half suspect that little oc- 

 topus would release the shrimp if once he caught him, 



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