Big Game at Sea 



On the Florida reef the largest octopus I ever 

 speared was not five feet across radial spread but 

 so powerful are they that often when hauling them 

 into the boat they would bring up fifteen or twenty 

 pounds of coral, releasing it at the surface to cling 

 to the boat with a strength that was astonishing in 

 so small an animal. 



On the Pacific coast the octopus attains a much 

 larger size, the great Octopus punctatus having been 

 found with a radial spread of twenty-five or thirty 

 feet. Many tales are current regarding the ferocity 

 of these creatures which may be taken cum grano 

 salis; at least in my experience I have found them 

 timid animals, but in every instance ready to fight 

 the intruder when attacked. The largest specimen 

 I have seen in these waters was fourteen feet across. 

 It was impaled on a trawl hook in five hundred feet 

 of water off Santa Catalina. As it reached the sur- 

 face it threw its arms over the boat, and as each arm 

 was nearly seven feet in length, and as there were 

 eight of them, they made over fifty feet of twining 

 snakelike objects. The occupants of the boat were 

 for the moment demoralized ; but they soon rid them- 

 selves of the unwelcome creature, killing it with the 

 oars. Large specimens are often brought up by the 

 San Francisco fishermen, and several have given these 

 toilers of the sea a sensational combat before they 

 released their hold upon arms or legs around which 

 the tentacles were thrown. A resident of Monterey 



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