The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1898-12-09
SEIZED BY AN OCTOPUS
Frightful Experience of a Man IN
the New Guinea Coast

the New Guinea Coast
The greatest enemy the divers had "a
fear in the waters of New Guinea wo.
the dreaded octopus, whose presence
occasioned far greater panic than tha
appearance of a mere shark. ThoSo
loathsome monsters would sometime,
come and throw their horrible tentac,os
over the side of the frail craft from
which the, divers were working. and
actually fasten on to the men them.
selves, dragging them out into the wo.
ter. AT other times octopuses hava
been known to attack the divers down
below, and hold them relentlessly undAr
water until life was extinct. One %
our own men had terribly narrow es.
cape from one of these fearful creo.
lures. | must explain, however. thar
each evening, when the divers returned
from pearl fishing, they roped all their
little skitfs together and let them Ia
astern of the schooner. Well. ona
night the wind rose and rain fell heav.
lily, with the result that next morninc
all the little boats were found more or
less waterlogged. Some of the Nalavs
were told off to go and bale them ont
While they were at work one of tina
men saw MISUNDERSTANDING black
object in the sea, which so attracted
his curiosity that he dived overheard 10
find out what it was. He had barely
reached the water, however when an
immense octopus rose into view, and
at once made for the terrified man, WIN
instantly saw his danger, and with
great presence Of mind promptly turned
and scrambled back into the boat
! The terrible creature was after him.
however, and to the horror of the on.
lockers it extended its great flexible
tentacles, enveloped the entire boat,
man and all, and then dragged the
whole down under the crystal sea. The
divers Mortified comrades rushed to his
assistance, and an attempt was made
to kill the octopus with a harpoon, but
without success Several of his more
resourceful companions then dived into
the water with big net made of rope.
which they took right underneath the
octopus, entangling the creature and
its living prey. The next step was to
drag up both man and octopus into the
whaleboat and, this done, the unfortu.
nate Malay was at length seized by his
legs and dragged by sheer force out Of
the frightful embrace, more dead than
alive. However, we soon revived him
by putting him in very hot bath. the
water being at such a temperature as
actually to blister his skin. 1t is most
remarkable that the man was not al.
together drowned, as he had been held
under water by the tentacles of the
octopus for rather more than two min.
uteS. But, like all the Malays of our
party, this man carried a knife, which
he used to very good purpose On the
monsters body when first it dragged
him under the water These repeated
stabs caused the creature to keep roll.
Ing about on the surface. The unhappy
man was in this way enabled to get
oil OSSdoioHdi UIedtu VI dir, OluerWSo
he must infallibly have been drowned.
/ The octopus had an oval body, and was
provided with an extraordinary mum,
Der Of tentacles-sX very large ones
and many smaller ones of varying sizes.
1t was Notwithstanding creature, with
a fiat, Shiny body, yellowish- white in
color, with black spots and a hideDus
cavity of mouth, without teeth. 1t Is
the tentacles of the creature that are
so dreaded, on account of the immense
sucking power which they possess. AT.
ter this incident the divers always took
a tomahawk with them on their expedi.
tons, IN order to lop off the tentacle'
of any octopus that might try to attach
them.-World Wide Magazine.