28 



Marvels of the Universe 



portioned to the size, 

 length and mass of the 

 tentacles, while the squid 

 has a cylindrical body, 

 with a pair of fin-like ap- 

 pendages at its point which 

 are used for steering pur- 

 poses when this creature 

 propels itself rapidly 

 through the water back- 

 wards, as we should think, 

 by ejecting a jet of water 

 from a pipe in its neck. 



Now the Octopus has 

 no such organs, for its 

 mode of life does not 

 call for them. It is an 

 inhabitant of shallow 

 waters, lurking among the 

 rocks near the surface by 

 day, and at night warping 

 itself along by means of 

 its tentacles, which rove 

 and quest into every nook 

 and cranny in search of 

 anything eatable which 

 they may grip and present 

 to the gaping mouth with 

 its parrot-like beak in 

 the centre of that deadly 

 group of arms. Nothing 

 in animated nature ap- 

 proaches in appearance these never-resting purveyors. Varying in size, of course, according to that 

 of the animal they serve, they spring from the top of the head in a circle disposed around the 

 mouth, and they are about one quarter of the thickness of the head itself. From the root they 

 taper off gradually to the ends, which are fine as a whip-lash. On their inner sides they are 

 furnished with a number of sucking discs set closely together, each of which acts like the receiver 

 of an air-pump, clinging to any object it touches with an amazing tenacity. 



Having once touched an object desired by the creature, another set of forces comes into play 

 to aid the adhesive power of the discs. The muscular power of these arms is enormous when the 

 size of the creature is considered, as many an incautious bather knows to his cost. It costs me a 

 shudder even now when I remember how, when wading in a shallow bay in the South of New 

 Zealand, with the object of catching flounders, Maori fashion, by holding them down with my bare 

 feet, then stooping and securing them, I suddenly felt a pricking aU over my bare legs (the water 

 was just above my knees). Stooping to ascertain the cause, I had a sensation of nausea when I 

 found the arms of an octopus wound around my legs and creeping upward. I started to rip them 

 off my flesh, detaching the skin as I did so ; but as fast as I did, others attached themselves, and I 

 had only two hands to the creature's eight. 



The cold sweat broke out upon me ; I drew my sheath knife, and, stooping, groped for the body 



Plio(o bu} 



TKe eight "arms' 



[fl. T/iieli: 



AN OCTOPUS ON ITS BACK. 



of this powerful creature have all their bases connected by 

 web. The parrot-IiUe beak is in the centre. 



