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9. On a Living Octopus. By J. P. G. Smith, Esq.. 

 In a Letter to Dr. Gray, F.R.S. 



" We found a Sea-spider at Goldthorpe Roads, in St. Bride's Bay, 

 which I brought home, and have examined with much interest. Its 

 habits and attitudes are very different from anything I ever saw 

 figured. I enclose a sketch of its appearance when at rest. It seems 

 very well, and shows great objection to be disturbed. 



" I noticed that the habit of the Cuttle-fish, when in a large pool 

 on the sands, was to get into a corner formed by a piece of rock, and 

 to fix itself by the suckers of the arms, sac downwards, and 'that 

 much more flattened and spi-ead out than when lying on the bottom 

 of the vase ; the eyes made the apex of an irregular obtuse pyramid. 

 It assumed at times a much darker and richer colour, almost chest- 

 nut, mottled with lighter shades ; and its skin became more wrinkled ; 

 and instead of two inspirations and exhalations in succession, it only 

 made one at about the same intervals, but with a much stronger jet 

 of water through the siphon. Upon my return, I placed it in a 

 pitcher of salt water inside the large foot-bath ; and while I ran to 

 the sea to fill a vessel with fresh salt water, it had leaped out upon 

 the verandah, and then fallen into the road beneath, by which it was 

 so much injured that it died in the night. After death it became 

 pallid, with scarcely a trace of colour left, and the eyes wide open, 

 round, and black. I felt quite sorry to lose the brute : there "was 

 something exceedingly interesting and grotesque about its habits. 

 While in the pool, it walked about occasionally on its arms, with a 

 spider-like movement." 



The colour was fawn on the upper side of the body and exterior of 

 the arms, striated with darker hues, making a sort of wrinkly net- 

 work ; beneath and inside the arms it is of an opalescent white : when 

 disturbed or touched, the fawn or reddish-brown colour changes to 

 a pallid- bluish hue. The eyes are very prominent and frog-like : by 

 day they remain nearly closed, with the exception of a narrow slit'; 

 but towards night they open wide, and show deep black orbs, with 

 the inside of the eye-lids tipped with gold : the lids and the skin 

 for some little distance beyond are of an intense blood-colour. The 

 animal has the power of extending the area so coloured, which is 

 largest at night time and when disturbed ; while at rest it subsides 

 considerably, and the colour does not extend beyond the lids. The 

 arms are eight in number, united at their thicker ends by a web of 

 skin ; inside, and to their extremities, are studded with numerous 

 suckers. The belly or sac has a wide valve-like opening beneath each 

 eye, through which the creature inhales water, and then, closing them, 

 drives it out with great force through one or other of the two 

 siphons, which are situated also below the eyes, and close to the 

 valves of the stomach. 



While at rest, it coils the arms together beneath the sack-like 

 body, and rests, attached strongly by the suckers in the thick parts 

 of its arms, to the bottom of the vase, the eyes uppermost ; and 

 the back, gently expanding and contracting, is bent forward over the 

 arms ; at long intervals it draws two deep inspirations, driving out 



