I'.S IIAIJITS OK TIIK CKIMIALOI'OUA. 



water, there is no doubt, and it appeared to me certain that it 



could, moreover, take a -ood aim by direct inn' the tube or 

 siphon on the under side of its body. From the dillicult v 

 wliicli tliese animals have in ca rr\ -ill" 1 their heads, t hcv cannot 

 crawl with ease when placed on the ground. I observed that 

 one which I kept in the cabin was slightly phosphorescent after 

 dark.'' Charles Darwin.* 



V. The ordinary restin^-phicc of this hideous sea-be. 

 under a large stone, or in the wide cleft of a rock, where an Oc- 

 topus can creep and squeeze itself wiih the llatnessof a sand- 

 dab, or the slipperiness of an eel. Its modes of locomotion are 

 curious and varied; using the eight arms as paddles, and work- 

 ing them alternately, the central disk representing a boat, octopi 

 row themselves along with an ease and celerity comparable to 

 the many-oared caique that glides over the tranquil waters of the 

 Bosphorus; they can ramble at will over the sandy roadways, 

 intersect iiii>- their submarine parks, and converting arms into 

 leii's. march on like a hiiue spider. (7////>/m.s/x of the highest 

 order, they climb the slippery ledges, as Hies walk up a window- 

 pane ; attaching the countless suckers that arm the terrible limbs 

 to the face of the rocks, or to the wrack and sea-weed, they iro 

 about back downward, like marine sloths, or. clin^inu 1 with one 

 arm to the waving alpe. perform scries of lra]'z>' movemcni* 

 that Leotard mi^ht view with envy. 



I do not think', in its native element, an octopus often catches 

 prey on the ground or on the rocks, but waits for them just as 

 the spider does, only the octopus converts //xr//' into a web. and 

 a fearful one too. Fastening one arm to a stout stalk of the 

 ii'reat sea-wrack. stilfenin; out the other seven, one would hardly 

 know it from the wrack amongst which it is concealed. Patiently 

 he bides his time, until presently a shoal of lish come ^aily on. 

 r r woorthree of them nib against the arms: fatal touch! As 

 though a powerful electric shock had passed through the (ish. 

 and suddenly knocked it senseless, so does the arm of the 

 octopus paraly/e its victim: then winding a irivat sucker-clad 

 cable round the palsied lish. draws the dainty morsel to the 



Narrative of " Vnyajjes of the Adventure and Beadle," iii, p. G, ls:;l. 



