THE TERRIBLE OCTOPUS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 66, 19 April 1881, Page 4

THE TERRIBLE OCTOPUS.

The , ferocity of the octopus is undeniable; but doubt has hitherto been cast on the old stories- which represent this unpleasant creature «s being in the habit of seizing and swamping boats. It is admitted by scientific naturalists that the hideous thing, known to the ancient world as the polypus, and to modoru boatmen as tne cuttlefish or sqtud, attains to a protentious size and strength in the warmer seas, and is very powerful and even dangerous. Its voracity and the peculiar violence with which it attacks and killt* its prey are wellknown to those persons who have seen it, weakened by captivity, and rendered lees eagerly ravenous by tii© abundance of food ready to its thousand htinds. To speak by the card, these number 960 in all, and are ra'her to be called fingers than hands. Hut <vhat fingers ! Each is a powerful sucker, that expands and contracts with rapid and ever«changeful motion, and there are 120 nf them to each of the eight long writhing 1 , restless arms, and with parrot -like beak advanced for the encouh'e-, this most unsightly of all living things inspires awe by its loathliness not less than by its actual power to harm. That it will turn anil fasten upon a human being, if angered or menacei with capture, is a well-established fact, and a recent occurrence imported from * delaide goes'f ir to revive the old belief that a polypus will venture on attacking the hull of a boat.— London Telegraph.