Big Game at Sea 



head within two feet of the water, to notify me of 

 the presence of the game which were often to be 

 found in the lagoon, lying near the bottom, simulating 

 it in color. We came upon several squids on the sur- 

 face, which, alarmed, sent a volume of water and ink 

 fairly into the face of the astonished man, deluging 

 his expressive countenance with streams of sepia, and 

 were away before I could use the grains or spear. 



If the squids are uncanny the octopi, or devil- 

 fishes, especially the large specimens, are diabolical 

 in appearance, motion and habits. They are bot- 

 tom animals, found on the reef in countless numbers 

 and are disturbed by having a man lift or turn a 

 coral branch, when the spiderlike creature is seen 

 lumbering away upon its eight sucker-lined legs. 

 When impaled, it at once becomes enraged and fights 

 until killed. One of the first I caught, literally turned 

 the tables on me. I was wading, spear in hand, in 

 water waist deep, turning over the coral, when see- 

 ing what I supposed was a shell, cyprea, I thrust my 

 hand under the coral and was immediately seized by 

 something which felt like a ball of snakes. I could 

 feel them climbing up my bare arm, the intensely 

 cold tentacles pressing their suckers into the flesh. 

 I jerked my hand back suddenly, but the concealed 

 animal held me firmly, having grasped the coral with 

 its remaining arms. For a moment I stood with my 

 face at the surface literally in the toils; then drop- 

 ping the grains pole I reached down and tugged at 



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