Show I FIGHTING AN OCTOPUS The Adventure of a Lot of Boys At Nassua in the West Indies The octopus is without doubt them the-m st disagreeable creature to be met with in tile ocean Cbey are found in nearly all waters from the coast oi Maine in and on the Borders of the gulf stream to the cold waters of the NortD Pacific Ocean Imagine a bag ot flesh over which waves of color are constantly sweeping and from which bight arms radiate like cue MillS uf a gigantic spider their under sides lined with abarp suckers ana cetwten them where they jam the body two parrotlike bills On each aids of tee Ijwer part of the bag put two fierce green or yelow eyes give tee whole mass a tremulous mo Zion and you have a geueralvidea of the appearance ot the octopus a at o ond cousin to the giant squidde scribed m a former number In size they range from a loot scrods upward up-ward Tne largest known was seen by Mr W H JXill at 8itk and when spread out it measured 28 feet from the tip of one tentacle or arm to thai of the opposite Specimens measuring 12 or 14 feet across are very common in tilt Pacific and are kept for sale in the San Francisco markets bnd considered great dainties dain-ties by the Italians and Chinese When of this size they are very dangerous and have been known to throw their snakelike arm about divers and bathers and drag them out into deeper water In 1877 an Indian woman living at Victoria Vancouver Island when in bathing was Bi zed by a monster octopus and dragged slowly into deepwater deep-water and drowned She was missed some time after and boats were putout put-out in search and the hapless victim was finally seen in about twenty feet of water still held in toe arms of the terrible creature The suckers on the arma are so many air pumps so that when tbey are pressed upon tee body a piston like arrangement exhausts the air and the suction presses in many kinds a sharp saw edged bony plate or ring into the flesh making Hundreds of terrible wougds In the Bahamia Islands these animals ani-mals are very common and often of great size and in their capture affords considerable sport to the winter visitors visi-tors at these isles of summer The largest octopus ever caught here was found upon the beach at Naaaua according to Prof B G Wilder by Mr J 8 George Each arm measured five feet and the entire en-tire monster weighed nearly 300 r > d pours a Several years ago a party from New York spent the winter at Nasauaand the boys for there were four or five bad many a lively encounter with the octopus They had a fine cedar boat fitted for their benefit her bow and stern I ware decked over and formed airtight I air-tight compartments while a row of airtight cans extended around under the seats so that their craft would float when full of water a fact tested on many an occasion At every movement of the boat some new wonder appeared thai would have delighted and astonished boys at the north Everywhere great bunches of branchcoral extended their branches upward Now great mounds or beads of braincoral appeared ap-peared tenor twelve feet across and among them beautiful yellow lilac and brown lana and plumes waved in the tide Curious animals called anemones unfolded their mouthlike flowersand the whole scene was that of a vast submarine garden of the moat gorgeous gor-geous description Strange fishes darted aside at their approachgray snappers great read groupois string rays that flew along like a bird wav ing their side fins up and down and lashing a long slender tail after them and here and there a black object would dart away creating a great cloud of mud at owing that a turtle had been caught napping Sometimes they had to drag her almost out of watt but finally tee head of Yellow Tail Reel wad reached and trey were upon unexplored unex-plored ground The reef was about four feet underwater under-water and covered with email heads of the coral known as Meandrina interspersed in-terspersed with the fans and plumes before mentioned The boat was hauled between two of the heads and Tom Harry and the others were silting on the gunwale gun-wale resting when they were attracted at-tracted by a shout from Willwho had waded away over the Leads Heres a queerlo > kin2 something under the coral he shouted Come I over overThe boys shoved ofi in his direction It looks like a bundle of snakes he continued Weil here goes and aiming his grains at the object Will let drive There was a great commotion for a moment Wil clung to his 8 pear the pole bending and writhing about i1 cant see what it is he shouted Come quick The boys pushed hard but were yet twenty or thirty yards tram Will when he jumped upon a coral head with a scream and up from the water clinging to his legs appeared a slimy writhing clinging mass of flesh that horrified the boys Will had lost his hold upon the spear but courageously drew his caseknifeand cut at the monster that had now crept up to his waist uIt is an octopus shouted Tomas Tom-as the boat rushed into the head of coral and siezing his spear overboard be went and as Harry grasped Wills extended arm and tried to drag him into or toward the boat he burled bis spear again and again into the creature crea-ture and endeavored to push it from Wills knee where it had now settled set-tled under the vigorous blows of the knife Two of the arms were severed in this way but the others clang like leeches winding about his legs doubling doub-ling and twisting all the while x Will was faint and weak but tie rest encouraged him and finally he struck a deep blow into the body of the monster and Tom settling down almost under the water with a tremendous tre-mendous lift tore the ugly creature from its hold At tbe same moment tbe bye in the boat who bad clung to Wil fairly jerked him into the boat with sutiitf uf the arms of the octopus still clinging to him Tom was not a moment behind as the creature had eoaped from him and he was likewise hauled aboard Will was badly cut biB legs armH and neck were covered with round marks aa if he had been cuppedand some of them tied badly while ther sharp bites were evidently the marks of parrotlike bills The water for many feet about them still showed evidences or the straggle being as black as ink from the sepia the animal had ejected in its fear or rage Will was determined to have the I body of the octopus So after the I water had cleared they commenced the search and finally the ugly fellow or what was left of itwas found under a clump of branchcoral Tbe boat was held over the spotand three spears were sent into it at once Even now it struggled hard and as they lifted it aboard the creature dragged atleast fifty pounds of dead coral with it But once in the boat it was soon finished with a hatchet and packed away in half a barrel which it nearly filled and was found to weigh afterward after-ward 170 pounds You wouldnt believe a creature like that would have so much strength said Will aa they started for home U Aa soon as I hit it it seemed to run up the spear and nearly twisted the pole out of my handsand the water became as black as ink and the first thing I knew I felt something like a red hot band clasp my leg and then another and then I made a jump for the head and the animal tried to climb up me I dont knowjwhether he was trying to attack me or to escape but Ive learned one lesaon never to dtrike an octopus unless you are in a boat Golden Days |