The Penn's Grove record., 1885-08-29

A. NAh ~ ANAAA 1tAE&@
In the Smithsonian institution inclosine
a specimen Of the octopus and not feel
your flesh crawl you have nor nerve
than most men. As n looks over
those long, hairy arms, each one pro
vided with suckers at every joint; as
one notices the cruel beak and looks
into the wicked staring eyes he IN
stinctive1y shrinks away, as If the deac
monster still had the power to harm
We were off the Florida coast gather.
ing sponges. In those days-and the
practice is still pursued by the poorer
classes Of sponge gatherers-we got
our sponges by anchorlng our small
sloop or schooner " the bed and
then diving from her rail to the
bottom of the sea, carrying a weight
along to sink us the faster. A good
pair of lungs and years OF practice
finally enabled me to reach bottom III
0 or 50 feet of water, and come up
with more or less of a haul.
On that warm coast the shark and
the octopus and other horrible things
belonging to the fish or reptile species.
are present, and often lying in wait.
The diver has a horror of them at first,
but the feeling soon wears away, and
soon men become perfectly reckless.
During the first year l never went
down without a sharp knife in my belt
to give any prowling shark a thrust.
but later on | would take a header off
the rail when q sharks dorsal fin was
cutting the water not a hundred yards
away.
During the second season we lost two
men by sharks, but | took no precau
tons and had no narrow escapes. In
the beginning of the third season we
anchored over a splendid bed, in a loca
ton well sheltered from storm and
swell, and we had reason to anticipate
a profitable catch.
There were four of us on that trip,
and the first man over the rail was an
old diver named Peterson. This was
about Z O'Clock in the morning, and
although we had been up for two hours
the bay had been clear of sharks. We
watched Peterson go over, but We
watched in vain for him to come up.
Twenty seconds passed-then thirty
then forty, and the captain leaned over
the rail and cried out:
"Boys, the old man has got fast
down there and is a gonerl'
We waited ten seconds longer and
then felt sure that we should never
see the old man alive again. We were
il twenty-eight feet of water, and the
trawl showed the bottom to be clear OF
weeds and made up of rocks and sand.
1t was hard to guess what had hap
pened. He might have bumped his
head against a rock, OF had his foot
caught in a crevice-he might have
burst a blood vessel or been taken with
the cramps. None of US thought OF an
octopus in connection with his sad
fate. We had seen a small n three
DAYS before, and we knew that the
creatures lurked in the still waters
but somehow we specuIated on all
other theories but this.
AS you may imagine, the loss of old
Peterson upset us, and it wa a good
half hour before any of us had rallied
our courage. 1t was my next turn
down, and as l finally got ready to go
the captain handed me a long, keen
shark knife on which he bad just put
an edge. / accepted it, more in hopes
it might be useful in enabling me to
send up the dead body than through
any bodily fear. If Peterson had been
caught in a c~revice, or was held fast by
a marine. plant, the knife would loosen
him.
Well, over l went at last, and 1t was
only a few seconds before l struck
bottom close to a large rock. Sponges
were growing all around me, and as
reached out for the nearest l felt some
thing whip across my bare shoulders
All the dress l had on was a pair Of
trunks, leaving legs, shoulders, arms
and most of the body naked. That
something" stung and burned and
bllstered, but in two seconds the feel
ing had passed from my shoulders to
my waist, and in another second it was
in my legs. 1t was not until l tried to
spring away that | realized my situa-
tion.6 AT the first move | was jerked
in the most violent manner towards
the rock, and the burning increased
tenfold.
An octopus had grabbed mel He had
three of his terrible arms around me,
and was drawing me to the rock. How
his suckers burned and blistered. How
the hairy arms gripped and twistedl
/ tell you l was a frightened man,
and for several seconds forgot that j
had a knife in my belt. When finally
reached for it, the octopus had dragged
me into the shadow of the rock, and
there | saw old Peterson's body. Two
of the creatures we're around it and
was to make a second victim.
NV left arm was bound TO my side.
but the right was free. AS / drew the
knife / caught sight of the body of the
reptile. In fact, the arms were draw
ing me within reach of his beak. /
did not slash at the arms, but struck
straight at the Jelly-like body. l had
then been down so long that my ears
were roaring and l realized that | had
only a few seconds to spare. Luck
guided my blows and | slashed at the
creature until pieces of the body
foated around me and the arms let up
on their grip. Then | started for the
surface, and l reached 1t about as neal
dead as a man could be and have any
life left. They pulled me on board,
and with me came the three terrible
arms which had been cut from the
body. Not a sucker would loosen its
grip, and they had to cut them off with
knives, one by one, close to my flesh.
Efects2 Well, that was the last dive
/ ever made, for l Vas in bed for
months. ! can show you 80 spots on
my body where the flesh looks like a
fire burn, and the remembrance of the
situation down there will start a chill
over me in the hottest day. The
serpent and crocodile and shark are
terrible enough, especially when they
have you at a disadvantage, but don't
you get within reach of an octopus
neverl
TUo French experimenters make the
remarkable report that silicon, though
unaffected by a temperature OF 1870 de-
u m