890 
Sept, ?5, 1876. 
[From FraLk Backland'e Log Book.] 
THE BRIGHTON AQUARirM. 
(COXTESUED.) 
The octopus tank is in fine order, and it is interesting 
to see the curious and hideous creature feed. He evi- 
dentlj’ has g )od eyesight. The moment a crab is d Top- 
ped in from above. he spies it from his lurking-place, 
and out he comes like an ogre from his den; he spreads 
his great tentacles all round in a circular form, and 
pounces down on the poor crab, inclosing him in the 
membrane which connects his eight arms together at 
the base. The crab has not a ch-ance of escape from 
this umbrella-shaped covering thrown so suddenly over 
him. He is iustan'ly seized and devoured; but we have 
not yet seen the process of devouring. The poor crab 
seems to know his danger; he has probably never be- 
fore seen an octopus, yet he is afraid. If I were a crab 
I should certainly be afraid of an octopus. I wonder 
if crabs have nerves, and if some crabs have pluck while 
others are cowards. 
Mr Lawler kindly showed me the “crabbery” in the 
na’uralists’ room, where these unfortuniite things are 
kept alive in hundreds (they cost one penny for four) 
for the octopus' dinner. He dropped in a bit of fish 
among them. In a moment all the crabs near rushed 
toward it. The crabs at a distance perceiving that 
‘ ‘something was up” began to run also just as Londoners 
will run to a fire or accident, or any other gratuitous 
amusement provided for them by circumstances. In 
about half a minute there were at lea.«t twenty or thirty 
crabs fastened on this one bit of fish, a living ball of 
crabs in fact. The ball then began to roll. Some crabs 
fell off the ball on one side, whTle other crabs climbed 
up the ball on the other, and then the moving ball rolled 
away into the other end of the tank, the mass ot crabs 
fighting, pushing and pinching each other most glori- 
ously. 
I imagine, therefore, crabs must be very selfish crea- 
tures, and that they act on the principle of first come 
first served. But ye’, do we not learn from this scene 
the great use of crabs, that is, to sweep up and tidy the 
bed of the ocean? If these active, hungry and unpaid 
little scavengers were not in existence, all sorts of dead 
creatures, fish, shells, etc., would accumulate and foul 
the water; but the crab’s business and delight is to eat 
up all he can find. Tnerefore I admire the little crabs 
for doing their duty, even though they do it uncon- 
sciously. Crabs are, in fact, the rats of the ocean, ready 
to eat np all the garbage they can find. At my own 
house I never allow a rat to be killed, that is, if I ran 
help it. That dreadful institution, the London dust-bin, 
becomes replete with the refuse of the kitchen. The 
rats come and eat up the refuse. Therefore I preserve 
the rats. I give the dust-man sixpence not to kill my 
rats; my “ Missis” gives the dust-man a shilling to kill 
them . It is wonderful how attentive the dust-man is 
to my dust-bin.* 
It is a great feature in human curiosity that when a 
great novelist or great poet writes abjut an animal, the 
beast immediately becomes celebrated. It may itself 
be common enough, but when invested with a halo of 
mystery — and novelists or poets are generally not famed 
for a profound knowledge of natural history — it sud- 
denly bee )mes a hero in the public mind. Victor Hugo 
wrote about the octopus or man-sucker. Of course, like 
the Yankee showman, he made his yarn “ as good as he 
could.” An cctopus arrives for the first time at the 
Brighton Aquarium; the directors find, to their joy, 
that t'leir new treasure fortunately becomes a subject 
of correspon lence in the Tint*, and for many days we 
read a g wd deal about the ‘‘ sea monster.” As the Oc- 
topus sits in a squat position at the bottom of his tank, 
his head is amazingly like that of an elephant, a simi'arity 
which is fully carried out by the continual wave like 
motions and curlings of his long, prehensile arms. 1 
am, in fact, rather surprised that this animal has not 
attained the name of the “water elephant,” a name 
certainly more appropriate than “devil fish,” for he is 
not a fi^h, and there is nothii g diabolical about him. 
It would be interesting to get a series of drawings of 
the various organs of prehension as found in animals. 
Ve should have upon our list the proboscis of the ele- 
phant, the mouth of the leech, the foot of the new forest 
fly, the head of the tapeworm, the curious apparatus on 
the head of the remora or sucking fish, the spideir-mon- 
key's tad, etc. The body of the octopus is of the shape 
of a very large swollen pear. It also reminds one 
of the body of a fat spider. The arms or “ cepha- 
lic processes,” in the octopus are (as the name implies) 
eight in number. “ These suckers are sessile in this 
species of cephalopod, and consist of expanded circular 
discs, formed by a duplicature of the integument, in- 
cluding rad:ating and circular muscular fibres. The in- 
ner surface of the disc is marked by lines which con- 
verge to the margin of the central cavity; the bottom of 
this cavity is occupied by a muscular substance which 
can be protruded and retracted like the piston of a syr- 
inge. When the animal applies the sucker to any ob- 
ject to which it is to attach itself, the pi-ton is raised and 
the cavity obliterated; it is then withdrawn and a va- 
cuum is produced, which can be further increased by a 
retraction of a central part of the disc itself, when the 
adhesion produced by the surrounding atmospheric 
pressure is so great that in the living animal the arm 
• This incident is a enrions f-atnre in London, the best p«H"ed. 
the cleanest swept, and the most eiteixally irderly ci v in the 
wor’d. Bnt whereas onr tines cleans oni the garbage e' e'ry morn- 
ing. Londoner- keep theirs at the bottom of the house for months, 
and it is emptied not by the police, but by ccntiactors. who bty the 
grlvUege and .do it vlitnaliy when It snlu them.— £ d. Eon a>D 
may be tom off before the suckers will yield.” This is 
certainly a marvellous piece of mechanism, well worthy 
of study and even imitation by engineers. 
When fishing for whiting at 'Folkstone, a great “ man- 
sucker,” as the octopus is there called by the fishermen, 
came floating past the boat, and I put my band and arm 
into the water in his way. In an instant the long arms 
were coiled round my hand, quick as the end of a driv- 
ing whip twists round a gig shaft ; the brute did not 
bite me ; I almost wish he had given me a nip. In the 
centre of the eight arms is the beak ; this is in shape 
like a parrot’s biak, but not nearly so hard or strong. 
The substance into which his beak is set is something 
'ike a bit of muscular tripe, therefore I do not think 
that the bite of an octopus would be so very bad. A | 
discussion has taken place in the Times as to whether 
the octopus would seize a man or not Certainly he 
would, if he got near him in the water, though not with 
the intention of swallcwing him, but because he would 
seize anything moving. I do not think an octop#s 
would come out of water to attack a man, nor would 
he, I think, “fly at” a man, for the octopus moves 
“ stern foremost,” his long arms being stretched out be- 
hind his head, looking like the legs of a heron when 
flying. 
The octopus of the British seas is comparatively a 
small animal, but in tropical seas there exist no doubt 
octopi of enormous size. In the “ Naturalist Library,” 
vol. 8, Marine Amphibiae, we have the following evi- 
dence : 
“In the Indian Seas a species of eight-armed cuttle 
has been found of suet a size as to measure twelve feet 
in breadth across the central part, while each arm was 
54 feet in length, thus makfng it extend from point to 
point about 120 feet. He further states that the natives 
of the Indian Isles, when sailing in their canoes, always 
• ake care to be provided with sharp hatchets, in order 
immediately to cut off the arms of such of these ani- 
mals as happen to fling them over the sides of the canoe, 
lest they should pull it under water and sink it.” 
Dr. Shaw writes : “ The existence of some enormously 
large species of the cuttle-fish tribe in the Indian North- 
ern Seas can hardly be doubted, and though some ac- 
counts may have been much exaggerated, yet there is 
suflBcient cause for believing that such species may very 
far surpass all that are generally observed about the 
, coasts of European seas. -4. navigator of the name of 
Dens is said to have lost three of his men in the African 
seas by a monster of this kind, which unexpectedly 
made its appearance while these men were employed 
I during a calm in raking the sides of a vessel. "The 
i colossal fish seized three men in its arms and drew 
' them under water, in spite of every effort to rescue 
' them, the thickness of one of the arms, which was cut 
off in the contest, was that of a mizen-mast, and the 
suckers of the size of pot -lids. 
Denys Montfort mentions that “ at St. Malo, in the 
chapel of St. Thomas, there is an ex-voto picture de- 
posited there by the crew of a vessel in remembrance of 
their wonderful preservation during a similar attack off 
the coast of Angrda. An enormous cuttle fish suddenly 
threw its arms across the vessel and was on the point of 
dragging it to the bottom, when the combined efforts of 
the crew succeeded in cutting off the tentacula with 
swords and hatchets. During the period of their great- 
est danger they invoked the aid of St. Thomas, and being 
successful in freeing themselves from their dreadful op 
■ ponent, on their return home they went in procession to 
the chapel and offered np their thanksgiving. They also 
procured a painter to represent as actually as possible 
their encounter, and the danger w hich at the moment 
. threatened the termination of their existence.” [This 
s'ory is contradicted in a note that says there is no such 
picture, and it seems scarcely in order that Mr. Buck- 
land should have retained an apocxy’plial incident in his 
book.] 
It i> possible that the Kraken of Olaus WormiusPon- 
toppidon, etc., was simply a gigantic octopus. But we 
must remember that the water in the Arctic Seas would 
be too cold for this kind of creature to grow to such a 
vast size. In a book (Gesner’s Natural History of Hei- 
delberg, A. D. 1506), there is a very good picture of the 
octopus. He calls it a polypus, and gives no special in- 
formation about it except that the Geimaus call it “ Ein 
eros-serPolkuttel.” I wonder if this means parrot-cuttle, 
the idea being taken from the shape of his beak. 
There is in my museum a cast of a very fine octopus. 
The animat was given me by Mr. Grove, of Charing 
Cross. His piear-rhaped body measures ten inches in 
length and five and three-quarters in width ; total length 
from end of body to tip of longest arm, three feet tour 
inches, the longest arm being two feet six inches. This 
animal when alive mu.st have been a formidable beast. 
When making this cast an idea suddenly struck me 
that the hydra which Hercules killed was simply a huge 
octopus. An author who wrote in 1658 thus describes 
the hydra ; “ A monstrous dragon with whom Hercules 
strove, and as he struck off one head ortentation, so two 
or three others rose continuously in the room thereof.” 
This is just what would happen if a man fought with an 
octopus ; for when the conqueror cut off one arm or 
•‘tentation” — mark the word — the octopus would put 
out at other, in its turn to be severed. My idea 
of Hercules’ hydra being an octopus was sub- 
sequently strengthened by the following letter, 
which I received from my father’s old friend, Mr. Pent- 
land, who was then residing in Rome: “ I have seen a 
letter from you, in which you put forward the theory 
that the dread hydra which 'Hercules killed was a great 
i octopus, or man-sucker. I can fully confirm your view 
I from an examination of several Roman terra-cottas ip 
I the Campagna and Vatican Museums, where the demi- 
I god ii represented slaying an immense octopus, which 
is very correctly represented, although sometimes with 
more or fewer arms than in the great Crphalopod. I 
think you might see representations of these ornamental 
tiles in Campagna’s work on the terra-cottas of his col- 
lection, which will be found in the library of the British 
Museum. The nearest representation of the living oc- 
topus is in the Gregorian Museum at the Vatican, where 
it forms one of a series of the labors of Hercules, and 
is probably of the lime of Antonines. You will see 
these terra-cottas noticed in Medway’s Hand-Book of 
Rome.” 
• 
Numerous as are the natural-history books, and able 
as are the descriptions and engravings of the creatures 
given therein, nothing can impress the human mind so 
strongly as the examination of the living octopus itself. 
In my fish museum at South Kensington can be seen, 
cut out in wood and painted to life, the exact dimen- 
sions of the largest cuttle-fish that has been captured 
and brought to public notice. The follow'ng are the cir- 
cumstances under which I became acquainted with this 
valuable specimen. In December, 1873, I received the 
following correspondence: ^ 
“ Dowxixg Street. 
“I am directed by the Earl of Kimberly to transmit 
to you a copy of a dispatch from the Governor of New- 
foundland, inclosing, with other papers, photographs 
of a gigantic cuttle-fish recently brought to shore by 
some fishermen of that island. Lord Kimberly is quite 
willing that you should make such use of these papers 
in the interest of science as you may think proper; but 
I am to request that his lordship may be informed in i 
what museum you consider they should be finally de- ! 
posited. Robert G. IV. HcBsmT.” 
“ Government House, Newfoundland. 
“MtLord: The existence of a large cephalopiod in 
the North Atlantic has been so questioned by naturalists 
that I am induced to bring under your lordship’s notice 
the circumstances under which one of the arms of a gi- 
gantic cuttle-fish was secured in Conception Bay, New- 
loundland. With this view, I have the honor to trans- 
mit copies of two letters from the Rev. Moses Harvey, 
of St. John’s, N. F., in one of which he describes the 
size of the captured arm of that fi>h, and deduces from 
certain data the proportions of the cephalopod. In his 
second letter he describes the apiiearance of an almost 
perfect specimen, taken recently’ at Logy Bay, though 
of inferior size to that seen in Coneepiion Bay. I have 
further the honor to submit photographs of the arm and 
of the cephalopod illustrative of the descriptions con- 
tained in Mr. Harvey’s letters. I trust that your lord- 
ship will be pleased io forward the inclosed documents 
and photographs to the department of science in Lon- ’ 
don to which they relate. Stephen G. Hill.” 
Mr. Harvey writes as regards the cuttle from which 
the arms were cut : 
“’Two fishermen were out in a punt on Oct. 26, off 
Portugal Cove, Conception Bay, about nine miles from i 
St. John’s. Observing some object floating on the water j 
they rowed toward it, supposing it to be a large sail or \ 
a w reck. One of the men struck it with his gaff, when 
immediately it reared a parrot-like beak, which they de- 
clare was as big ‘as a six-gallon keg,’ with which it 
struck the bottom of the boat violently. It then shot 
out from ito head two large, livid arms, and began to 
twine them round the boat. One of the men seized a 
small ax and severed both arms as they lay over the 
gunwale of the boat, w hereupon the fish moved off and 
ejected an immense quantity of inky fluid, which dark- 
ened the water for two or three hundred yaids. The 
men saw it for a short lime ofterward, and observed its 
tail in the air, which they declare was ten feet across. 
They estimate the body to have been sixty feet in length, 
five feet in diameter, and of the same shape and color 
as the common squid, and they observed that it moved 
in the same way as the squid, both backward and for- 
ward. 
“One of the arms which they brought ashore was un- 
fortunately destroyed, as they were ignorant of its im- 
portance; 'but the clergj’inan of the village azures me 
It was ten inches in diameter and six feet in length. 
The other arm was brought to St. John’s, but not before 
six feet of it were destroyed. Fortunately I heard of 
it, and had it preserved; Mr. Murray of the Geological 
Survey and I afterward examined it carefully, had it 
photographed and immersed in alcohol; it is now in our 
museum. It measured nineteen feet, is of a pale pink 
color, entirely cartilaginous, tough and pliant as leather 
and very strong. It is but three inches and a half in 
circumference, except toward the extremity, where it 
broadens like an oar to six inches in circumference, and 
then tapers to a pretty fine point. The under surface 
of the extremity is covered with suckers to the very 
point. At the extreme end there is a cluster of small 
suckers with fine sharp teeth round their edges, andbav- j 
ing a serrated membrane stretched across each. Of 
these there are about seventy; then come two rows of 
very large suckers, the movable disc of each an inch 
and a quarter in diameter, the cartilaginous ring not be- 
ing denticulated. These are iwenty’-iour in number. 
After these there is another group of suckers, with den- 
ticulated edges, similar to the first and about fifty in 
number. Along the under surface about forty more 
small suckers are distributed at intervals, making in all 
about 180 suckers on the arm. The men estimate that 
they left about ten feet of the arm attached to the body 
of the fish, so that its original length must have been 35 
feet. More than once we have had accounts of gigantic 
cuttles cast ashore in different localities, but not until 
now hava any of them been preserved. i 
[to bb continued.] 1 
