FOUR MEN AND AN OCTOPUS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 38, 10 March 1909, Page 4

FOUR MEN AND AN OCTOPUS

| EXCITING TU^-OK-W'AU. » Dunedin, March 7. A desperate tug-of-war between four men and an octopus took place tiio other day in the lower harbour. One of the men in the suction dredge was taking soundings as the vessel steamed across to deposit a, load of spoil from the new cut. At one east of the lead some difficulty was experienced in pulling it to the surface, but the leadsman thought only of floating seaweed until lie found Unit the lead resisted his efforts to pull j it on hoard. Looking over the side lie! saw that a large octopus had entwined, two of its arms around the lead and line, and with its other tentacles was clinging to the side of tin; vessel. Another man ' came tu the leadsman's assistance, but the united elVorts of the two men failed to drag the lead from the embrace of the octopus. Two more dredge hands came along, and fastened a boat hook into the* body uf the octopus, but tile combined ell'orls uf the four men were unequal to the task of pulling it bodily up the ship's side or getting the lead line clear. It was "hard for four men on deck to acknowledge defeat by an octopus. Tlw»re followed a determined onslaught that resolved itself into a life and death struggle for tile octopus, but, despite the iron hook digging into its vitals, the tentacles retained hoTd of the line and of the vessel's side. Suddenly the boathook came away from the writhing mass. | The iron hook, half an inch iu diameter , had snapped, the tentacles had released I their hold, and the octopus disappeared | under the dredge. The men estimated i the arms of the octopus to be about 'nine feet long.