The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-06-16
1esrriptiue Srtirles.
THE OCTOPUS.

coast of Africa to the Gulf OF Alden, the
devil fish can be found in all the bights and
bays. You can find him in the Indian
Ocean, New Zealand Sea, Coral Sea-
among all the islands lying about New
Guinea. He abounds in the Mediterranean
Sea and Pacific Ocean, and have seen him
in all the waters from Cuba down to Cape
Horn, and up the other side Of Brazil to
the Isthmus of Panama He is by no
means rare sight to sailors, and the fact
that he is not dreaded like the shark is be-
cause instances are rare where he attacks
man. LIDO not believe the hideous mon
ster ever attacks human beings from hun
ger. The sea is full of their sort Of food,
and nature never expected them to prey on
the flesh and bones of a tough old salt. I
have read and heard it often assumed that
the octopus sucks the blood and devours
the flesh of the man unfortunate enough to
be entrapped in those awful arms, but can
prove to the contrary. My experience
with the terrible creatures has always gone
to prove that they seldom or never attack
a person unless their anger is excited.
In 1865 | was one of the crew of the
American bark Henry Castle, which made
a voyage to the Java Sea and called at sew
eral of the larger islands. One day, while
the ship was lying in the outer harbor of
Samarang, Island of Java, two of us pulled
the captain ashore in the gig We landed
him on a rocky point, from whence he
took short cut across to the town, and we
were ordered to await there until his return.
My shipmate, whose name was Thurber,
stretched out for nap as soon as the cap
tain was gone, while l got out on the point
to have look around The water was
pretty deep alongside the boat, and by and
by, full of sailors deviltry, l picked up a
large rock and heaved it into the water
with great splash. l calculated on see
ing Thurber jump upin alarm, but he only
laughed at my effort. Then I set out to
wet him with splash, and flung five or
six other rocks as large as could handle.
l was hunting for yet another, and had my
back to the boat and the water when some
thing brushed past my head. made a
leap aside and wheeled around. In the
two seconds thus occupied | decided that
Thurber had thrown some missile at me-
and | laughed as l turned about.
The laugh, however, died away in shout
of terror.
An octopus with body as large as q
beer keg had risen to the surface and partly
pulled itself on the recks, and its half dozer
terrible arms were flying about like SC
many whip lashes. 1t had flung one OF
them at me and missed its aim. Although
1 was now thirty feet away, it continued tc
fling three or four feelers in my direction, but
none of them could reach me within fifteen
feet. The two longest arms were from ff
teen to eighteen feet long, and the shorter
ones from eight to ten.
If I could have restrained myself for :
few minutes the monster would no doubt
have sunk beneath the waters again, but
the awful stare of its great eyes, the sigh
of the terrible beak, the squirming of those
horrible feelers as they tried in vain tC
touch me, made me cry out loudly.
might have known that could have made
no headway against the monster with the
means at hand, but, acting on the impulse
of the moment, l picked up a good-sized
rock and flung it with certain aim at the
pulpish body. 1t was at this moment that
Thurber rose up in the boat to see what
was going on. The creature didn't sec
him at first, being entirely occupied in try
ing to get me into its clutches. l believe
Thurber could have pushed the boat of
and foated away in safety, but he also act
ed on the first impulse. Lifting up one
of the heavy oars he dealt the octopus q
heavy blow, no doubt inAicting severe in
jury. He was raising the oar for second
blow, when 1 saw three or four feelers
whip through the air at once and fasten tC
him, while the creature emitted kissing
sound like the blowing off of steam. Tit
man uttered scream Of fright and terrol
as the feelers caught him, and sank dow
in the boat and clung to thwart with thu
clutch of despair.
Mind you, everything had taken plac'
in moment, and wasn't to be blameC
for not knowing exactly what to do. How
ever, l perhaps accomplished all that coult
have been done under the circumstance
hurled rock after rock at the creature
striking it fairly several times, but it re
fused to let go Of Thurber. 1t kept TIVE
of the feelers ready for me, and once, wher
in my excitement and anxiety l approached
too near, one of the feelers came so clos
to catching me that it struck my foot
The screams of my poor shipmate wer'
terrible to hear, and they alarmed the crew
of several vessels half mile away. TIVE
boats put off for us, but they had not pass
ed over half the distance when the octopus
put forth his strength and jerked Thurbel
from his hold and overheard. The watel
at that point was twenty feet deep, and j
was apparent that there was sort of cave
or recess in the rocks which was the home
of the creature. We rolled more rocki
down, got long pole finally and thrust i
down, and after an hours hard work go
hold of the sailors body and brought it tc
land. There was a terrible cash in hi
back, made, no doubt, by the beak of the
octopus, and wherever the cups of the feel