THE KRAKEN, 
19 
arms is fatal. Instantaneously as pull of trigger brings 
down a bird, or touch of electric wire explodes a torpedo or 
a mining fuse, the pistons of the series of suckers are 
simultaneously drawn inward, the air is removed from the 
pneumatic holders, and a vacuum created in each : the crab 
tries to escape, but in a second is completely pinioned : 
not a movement, not a struggle is possible ; each leg, each 
claw is grasped all over by suckers, enfolded in them, 
stretched out to its fullest extent by them ; the back of 
the carapace is completely covered by the tenacious disks, 
brought together by the adaptable contractions of the limb, 
and ranged in close order, shoulder to shoulder, touching 
each other ; and the pressure of the air is so great that 
nothing can effect the relaxation of their retentive power but 
the destruction of the air-pump that works them, or the 
closing of the throttle-valve by which they are connected 
with it. Meanwhile the abdominal plates of the captive 
crab are dragged towards the mouth ; the black tip of the 
hard horny beak is seen for a single instant protruding 
from the circular orifice in the centre of the radiation of 
the arms ; and, the next, has crushed through the shell, and 
is buried deep in the flesh of the victim. 
Unlike the skulking, hiding octopus, its ten-armed rela- 
tive, the Sepia loves the daylight and the freedom of the 
upper water. Its predatory acts are not those of a con- 
cealed and ambushed brigand lying in wait behind a 
rock, or peeping furtively from within the gloomy shadow 
of a cave J but it may better be compared to the war-like 
Comanche vidette seated gracefully on his horse, and scan- 
ning from some elevated knoll a wide expanse of prairie, in 
readiness to swoop upon a weak or unarmed foe. Poised 
near the surface of the water, like a hawk in the air, the 
Sepia moves gently to and fro by graceful undulations of 
C 2 ^ 
