Show I ESCAPED FROM AJ OCTVPVS I Hero Is a true story of an octopus not tho kind that has Its hendquarters in New Jersey Two fishermen were plying their vocation off Great Belle Island Conception Bay oft the Newfoundland New-foundland coast Suddenly they discovered dis-covered at a short distance from them a dark shapeless mass floating on the surface of the water Concluding that it was probably part of the cargo of some wrecked vessel they approached It anticipating a valuable prize and one of them struck tho object with his boathook Upon receiving the shock the dark heap became suddenly animated ani-mated and spreading out discovered a head with a pair of large prominent promi-nent staring eyes which seemed to gleam with intense ferocity tho creature creat-ure at tho same time exposing to view and opening its parrotllko beak with an apparently hostile and mnllgnnnt purpose The men were petrified with terror and for a moment so fascinated by the horrible sight that they were powerless to make a move to defend themselves Before they had time to recover I their presence of mind tho monster now but a few feet from tho boat suddenly sud-denly shot out from around its head several long fleshy arms grappling with them for the boat and seeking to envelop It In their folds Only tho two longest of theso arms reached the craft and owing to their great length went completely over and beyond it Seizing his hatchet with a desperate effort one of the men succeeded In severing these limbs with a single welldelivered blow and the creature finding Itself worsted Immediately disappeared dis-appeared beneath tho waters leaving in the boat its amputated members asa as-a trophy of the encounter One of tho arms was unfortunately unfortunate-ly destroyed before Its value was known but the other when brought to St Johns and examined by tho Rev M Harvey was found to measure meas-ure no less than nineteen feet The fisherman who acted as surgeon declares de-clares there must havo been at least six feet more left attached to the monsters mon-sters body The story Is preserved In the proceedings of the British Zoological Zo-ological Society |