New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-10-06
THE OCTOPUS.

what the sea Is inhabited by and to look at its
strangest as well as most beautiful productions.
As one enters the great hall, the eye Is at once
caught by a splendid specimen Of an octopus that
some time ago captured off the coast OF Cali
fornia 1t is a Notwithstanding brute. Eight long
arms spread out from umbre like body. THESE
arms tentacles arc each about twelve feet long
and on the under surface regularly studded with
suckers They are cup-shaped in form, reddish on
the outside but white and beautifully futed on the
inside Small at the beginning OF the tentach. they
gradually increase in diameter till the middle OF the
arm is reached, where they are fully two inches
across and then in perfect mathematical proportions
they lessen in size till the of the again sup
piled with the smallest of them Each arm or tenta-
Gle has OF these suckers placed diagonaly
to the trend OF the body In the specimen now on
exhibition It is possible to count one hundred and
twenty OF these suckers arm; that means
nearly one thousand for the complete food providing
armament of this terror Of the This giant Jelly
fish has most cruel mouth; armed with beak
much resembling that Of a parrot or macaw,
but Infinitely stronger sack contains all the vital
and digestive organs OF the octopus. Their chlef
prey Is fish. but a would be as helpless In the
grip of one OF these creatures babe In the
coils of an anaconda 1t was the octopus. perhaps,
that suggested to liars of old the story Of Hercules
and the Hydra
A GIANT SQUID.
Another grewsome object hanging from the roof
and almost as repulsve the octopus is the dead
form of a giant squid. The small squid, much
loved by the Italians. can be seen often on the hsh
counters in Fulton Market but this ffty-feet long
fellow is an exceedingly find The one on eX-
hibtion is an exact cast Of one that was thrown up
ON the beach near Catalina, Newfoundland, some
years ago Il was living when first found and its
enormous feelers kept the fishermen at safe dis
lance Before the tide came back the great shrimp
was captured and safely housed in punchepn of
brine The body is shaped exactly like a torpedo
with two-hange for a back propeller for.
like squids and shrimps and prawns, this uncanny
forager of the deep is always moving backwards
This seems strange but nature never makes mis-
take.
The great torpedo body has two of the largest eyes
known. The iris is vivid yellow, somewhat mar
row. encircllng black pupil about six inches across
stretch out the real terrors Of this softfeshed den
zen Of the sea Eight long IeeisIs. more tenacious
are the force to Two feelers that stretch
away fully twenty feet beyond. These two well
as the eight in reserve are all armed with suckers
and as the prey is struck the squid proper
starts in to work his machinery. and woe betide the
The giant squid, under his armament Of feelers
feet pipe and with it II fills It's great body with tons
OF water. With a tremendous compression Of the
whisked inward and the two long tertacles have
difficulty in passing their prey to the eight wal
ing supports, and from them 1t is passed on 10 the
mouth.
BEAUTIFUL SPECIMENS OF SEA LIFE.
There are in Professor Whtfelds beautifully ar
ranged collection thousand other objects that
mean no terror man. and in many cases are
exqusitely beautiful. There the coras of every
shape and form. A small specimen can be seen OF
the red coral just growing. with small seasheIs
finding "A home at the root of the small Columns
In this collection there Is one gem, small sN-lnch
stem Of Ocuna, which was found by Miss +. X VI.
Hitchcock ir the West Indies. The trunk y PINK,
as II borrowed from some neighborlnS conch-sheli;
It's topmost boughs are the purest white,
There also splendid specimens or tne nautilus,
found in the Indian Ocean. New-C Caledonia ana the
Island OF SALON.. one exhibit that is or great IN
terest is that OF the argonauts Here Is the largest
one that ever captured IL measures over II
foot across. and Is perfect specimen: 80,
The capture OF this shell is one OF me most uili-
cut I'm the world. In n dead calm In South African
seas on a sailing ship. here and there the quet
waters are often dotted with these little ar9osles
The tenant IL multi-cOored ready 10 SINK at any
moment and sting when captured. with suTptls-
Ing viruence His beautiful pearly shell IS reconl-
pense for pain and trouble and the NaturaI his'oty
Museum has probably the finest collection III lne
world In the cases be seen the strange tere-
bratula that hang like grapes from coral bIahShes
their shells almost fine as tissue paper. Iheh
there are all sorts OF echinoderms or sea eggs,
much hated by the bathers. Tor the sp'hes are
poisonous.