THE LIVING WORLD. 
3i 
citing story, even if the adventure is to be classed with those of the orthodox 
fisherman. The thrilling tale of “ The Toilers of the Sea,” though written by 
the greatest and most impassioned of Frenchmen, suffers from the author’s 
confounding the octopus with the polypes. 
Several specimens have been found on the Pacific coast having a radial 
spread of thirty feet and , weighing two hundred pounds. A very large one, 
though in a somewhat mutilated condition, was dredged from a depth of one 
thousand fathoms (about one mile) by the United States Coast Survey in 1878. 
Another, of comparatively small size, was captured by the Fish Commission off 
the New England coast, and was kept alive for some time in a tank, where its 
habits could be observed. At all times it appeared very timid, remaining all the 
while at the bottom, from which it could rarely be made to stir. When aroused, 
however, it would dart swiftly from one side of its quarters to another, and then 
firmly attach itself to the 
bottom again by the pow r - 
erful suckers along its 
arms. The eyes were 
very large but seldom 
opened to their fullest 
extent during the day; 
at night, however, it 
seemed to have greater 
animation and kept its 
eyes wide open, from 
which it was thought to 
be a nocturnal creature, 
as it undoubtedly was. 
The Rev. Mr. Harvey 
described a specimen that 
was cast on shore in 1879, 
which he declares meas¬ 
ured eighty feet, and gave 
a graphic account of its 
terrific struggles to escape 
from a pool in which a receding tide had left it; but the body was not preserved. 
A great many accounts have appeared from time to time of thrilling 
adventures with these animals, the novelist being especially free with such 
descriptions, but I can call to mind only a single instance, properly authen¬ 
ticated, where a man has actually been attacked by any member of the 
Cephalopoda family. The account is furnished by the gentleman who had this 
frightful experience, and who was no other than Professor Beale, a distinguished 
naturalist. He relates that while engaged searching for shells on one of the 
Bonin Islands of the North Pacific he came upon a rock-squid (cuttle-fish), 
as it was creeping upon its eight tentacles over some rocks towards the sea. 
The creature’s body was little larger than a man’s two. fists, though its 
arms had a spread of nearly five feet. Curious to determine the strength of 
the animal, Mr. Beale endeavored to arrest its progress by pressing his foot 
upon one of its arms, but to no avail, and his resolution becoming the stronger 
because of the apparent ease with which the creature successfully resisted every 
the octopus ( Cephaloptera). 
