Page:Sea and River-side Rambles in Victoria.djvu/74

55 designs more artfully and successfully under the protection which it affords. That charming writer on Zoology, Mr. Broderip, attempted with a hand-net to catch an Octopus that was floating by with its long and flexible arms entwined round a fish, which it was tearing with its sharp hawk's bill; it allowed the net to approach within a short distance before it relinquished its prey, when, in an instant, it relaxed its thousand suckers, exploded its inky ammunition, and rapidly retreated under cover of the cloud which it had occasioned, by rapid and vigorous strokes of its circular web.

An amusing anecdote is also told of a gallant Officer who was inconsiderately collecting shells in a pair of immaculate white trousers, and came suddenly upon one of the naked Cephalopods snugly harboured in a recess in the rock. They looked at each other, and the cuttle, who had his eyes about him and knew well how to use them, upon seeing the enemy advance took good aim, and shot so true, that he covered the snowy inexpressibles with the contents of his ink-bag, and rendered them unpresentable either in drawing-room or dining-room.

Pocketing our Octopus after this long yarn about him and his fellows, we stroll onwards to a heap of Seaweeds, evidently thrown out from the Fishermen's net, and soon were on our knees groping amongst it, when a loud snort made us rise somewhat hastily (visions of mighty Krakens, enveloping us in their huge arms, flitting lightening-like before us), and then