NARROW ESCAPE.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 43, 9 March 1878, Page 3

NARROW ESCAPE.

ITJIe. dii«er 'engaged at the- Tfejjbync RixeTi. Belfast,, m I'enaps.ing' the reef tsays the '*• Warrnarohooll Standard) had a rather aarJß«(tv escape from losing j his life on. Thursday evening* 7th ; February. M appears that Mr Smale Iliad fi>ed offachasge-of! dynamite, and (displaced a* large quanity of stones at ! the bottom of the river.. He went j ifewi* .to'- prepare for l£f I wig, these -stones •by- (he aid of chains iiito the punt. While engaged 'm -rolling over 'a large ! stone, he saw something: which he supposed, at the time was a* piece of clean-looking kelp, moving' about m front, of where he was working; In a few -.s(H'onds4hi^li'ibct came m contact . wilb >; tji&)diT^ it

quickly coiled, partly holding him. Immediately. Mr S male touched what was coiled round his arm, he became aware of Ins position, and tried to extricate himself fronf the grasp of \ " seadevil," but found it afar more difficult job than he anticipated. Catching hold of- the part hanging from his arm, he walked along the bottom" of the river towards tlie end. of. it, when be saw he was firmly held by lone, of .the feelers of a large Octopus, better known amongst sailors as the " devil fish." Mr Smale tried to pull the fish off from its hold of the rooks, but without effect for some time. At last the fish, perhaps thinking it had not got sufficient hold or power over its prey, loosened itself from the stones, and quickly "" transferred its feelers or arms 1 around the diver's legs and body: In this position Mr Smale thought the best thing for him to do was to get up on deck as soon as possible, and he quickly made tracks for the ladder which reached from the deck of the punt to the bottom of the river. The diver was certainly a curiouslooking object .when he came up; this huge ugly looking thing appeared to be entangled all over him, holding him m a firm embrace. However, Mr Smale's fellow workmen were not long m freeing him from the unfriendly hug of his sub jarine com^ panion. The body portion of the octo-. pus was only about the size of a large soup plate, with eyes m his head like those of a sheep ; but it possessed nine arms, each about 4 feet m length, at the butt as thick as a man's wrist, tapering off at the end to as fine a point as that of a pen-knife; Thus it could spread over an area of 9 feet m diameter. All the way along the underneath part of each feeler are suckers every quarter of an inch* giving it immense power. Mr Smale declares that it was powerful enough to keep three men under water.