FOUR MEN AND AN OCTOPUS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 450, 8 March 1909, Page 3

FOUR MEN AND AN OCTOPUS.

EXCITING TUG-OF-WAR. (by telegraph special correspondent.) , ■ Dunedin, March 7. A desperate tug-of-war between four men and an octopus took placo the other day in the lower havbour. One of the men in the suction dredge was taking soundings as the ivessel steamed across to deposit a load of spoil from the now out. At ono cast of the lead some difficulty was experienced in pulling it to the surface, but the leadsmanthought only of floating seaweed until he found that tho lead resisted his efforts to pull it on board. Looking over the side ho saw that a large octopus had entwined two of its arms round tho lead and line, and with its other tentacles was clinging to the side of the vessel. Another' man came to the leadsman's assistance, but the united efforts of the two man failed to drag the lead from tho embrace of the octopus. Two more dredge hands came along, and fastened a boat-hook" into the body of the octopus, hut the combined efforts of the four men were unequal to the task of pulling it bodily tip the shin's side or getting the lead linoeleur. It was hard for four men on deck to acknowledge defeat by an octopjus. There followed a determined onslaught that resolved itrelf into a-life and death stiWglo for the octopus, but, despite the iron hook digging into its vitals, the tentacles retained hold of the line and of the vessel's side. Suddenly the boathook came away from the writhing mass. The iron jliook,. half an inch in diameter had snapped, i tho tentacles released their hold, and tho octopus disappeared under the dredge. Tho men estimated the arms of the octopus to bo about nine feet long. We all know tho value of wealth. But far, far more precious is health; Laxo-Tonic Pills try, And your ailments will fly; They're the best in the whole Commonwealth. lAXO-TONIC PILLS. lOid. and Ib, 6d. .20