The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-11-03
FIELDS OF ADVENTURE.
THRILLING INCIDENTS AND DARING
DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

pus-neld Under Water by the Ten
tacles-His Narrow Escape From
DentIl-Auacked by Lion.
The following thrilling description
of a Malay's adventure with an octo-
pus is told by Louis de Rougemont,
in the story describing his strange ex-
periences while a castaway for many
years in the wilds of unexplored Aus
tralia, which appeared in the Wide
World Magazine. The incident oc-
Cured while he was engaged in the
pearl fishery off the coast of New
Guinea, where pearls exist in great
abundance.
The story is as follows:
"The greatest enemy the divers had
to fear in these waters was the dreaded
octopus, whose presence occasioned
far greater panic than the appearance
of mere shark.
These loathsome monsters would
sometimes come and throw their hor-
rible tentacles over the side Of the
frail craft from which the divers were
working, and actually fasten on to the
men themselves, dragging them out
into the water.
zone of our own men had terribly
narrow escape from one of these fear
full creatures.
cone night the wind rose and rain
fell heavily, with the result that next
morning all the little boats were found
more or less water-logged. Some Of
the Malays were told off to go and bale
them out. Whilst they were at work
one of the men saw mysterious look
ing black object in the sea, which so
attracted his curiosity that he dived
overheard to 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 terri
fed man, who instantly saw his dan
ger, 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 har-
poon, 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, en-
tangling the creature and its still liv-
ing prey.
"The next step was to drag up both
man and octopus into the whale-boat,
and this done, the unfortunate 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 a very hot
bath, the water being at such tenn
perature as to actually blister his skin.
It is most remarkable that the man
was not altogether drowned, as he
had been held under water by the
tentacles Of the octopus for rather
more than two minutes. But, like
all the Malays OF our party, this man
carried 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 rolling about on
the surface. The unhappy man was
in this way enabled to get an occa-
sional breath of air, otherwise he
must infallibly have been drowned.
"The octopus had an oval body, and
was provided with an extraordinary
number of tentacles-six very large
ones and many smaller ones of vary
ing sizes. 1t was horrible-looking
creature, with fiat, Shiny body, yell
lowish white in color, with black
spots, and a hideous cavity Of q
mouth, without teeth. 1t is the ten
tacles of the creature that are so
dreaded on account OF the immense
sucking power which they possess.
"After this incident the divers al
ways took tomahawk with them on
their expedition, in order to lop off
the tentacles of any octopus that
might try to attack them."