Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/363

Rh saw one, which measured three feet in length by five or six inches in width, squeeze or run itself through a crevice not over half an inch in width!

I should have mentioned that if it is desired to preserve the octopus alive, the pressure on the neck should not be too severe, for that is their vulnerable point; and a person attacked by one should never lose time in striving to loosen its arms, but grasp if possible this portion connecting the head and body, in which way they may be easily killed.

In regard to their powers of locomotion upon land, on which there has been considerable controversy, I can assure the reader that I have seen a full-grown octopus at the Bermudas spring up out of the water, only a few feet forward of the boat I was in, and run up a perpendicular rocky cliff for more than two hundred feet! This ledge of rock bore a general resemblance to our Hudson River Palisades at their steepest portion. We soon learned the cause of this seemingly strange performance, when we discovered one of those beautiful bright-red crabs, which are native to the locality, trying to escape from the clutches of this devil-fish. The crab, being frightened almost out of its simple wits, had run up the rocks for safety; but its tactics proved sure death in the end. As to the speed of the octopus, it appeared to me to travel much faster than I could run. At least, I should not care, if unarmed, to engage in a race with one, unless Mr. Devil started a good way ahead.

In this case I soon came into closer acquaintance with our agile friend, for the next morning I had the satisfaction of discovering that he had walked into our trap, which had carefully placed near his cave; and now that we could see him face to face, we found that his strength was enormous as compared with his moderate size. Being placed in a bucket of water, such as is usually found on a ship's deck, he attached his eight arms to the bottom and sides, by means of his powerful and perfect-working suction-disks, so firmly, that I several times lifted the bucket, water and all, by taking hold of the animal's body, and twirled it over my head. The more I twirled the more firmly it stuck. An octopus will not relax its hold on compulsion, any more than Falstaff would "give reasons." It is as self-willed as some human animals.

According to scientific classification, the octopus belongs to the division of soft-bodied Mollusca, and the class of