Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1899-04-08
SEIZED BY AN OCTOPUS.
FrighffnI Experience of Man on the
New Guinea Coast.

Frfghffnl Experience of Man on the
New Guinea Coast.
The greatest enemies the divers had
10 fear in the waters of New Guinea
was the dreaded octopus. whose pres
ence occasioned far greater panic than
the appearance of a mere shark. These
loathsome monsters, says a veteran
diver, would sometimes come and
throw their horrible tentacles over the
side of the frail craft from which the
divers were working, and actually fas-
ten on TO the men themselves, drag
ging them out into the water AT
other times octopuses have been
known to attack the divers down be-
low, and hold them relentlessly under
water until life was extinct One OF
our own men had a terribly narrow es-
cape from one of these fearful crea-
lures. | must explain, however, that
each evening, when the divers re-
turned from pearl fishing, they roped
all their little skiffs together and let
them lie astern of the schooner. Well.
one night the wind rose and rain fell
heavily, with the result that next
morning all the little boats were found
more or less waterlogged. Some of
the Malays were told 10 90 off and
bale them out While they were at
work one of the men saw a mysterious
looking, black object in the sea, which
so attracted his attention that he dived
overheard to find ont what it was. He
had barely reached the water. how
ever. when an immense octopus rose
into view, and N once made for the
terrified man, who 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 horrified comrades rushed
to his assistance. and an attempt was
made to kill the octopus with har-
pooh, but without success. Several of
his more resourceful companions then
dived into the water with a big net
made of rope which they took right
beneath the octupus, entangling the
creature with its still living prey. The
next step was to drive up both man
and octopus into the whaleboat, 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 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, al he had been held
under water by the tentacles of the
octopus for rather more than two min
utes. But, like ali the Malays of our
party, this man carried a knife, which
he used to very good purpose on the
monsters body when it first dragged
him under watG These repeated
stabs caused the creature to keep roll
ing about on the surface The I'M
happy man was thus enabled to get
an occasional breath Of air, otherwise
he must infallibly have been drowned.
The octopus had an oval body and was
provided with an extraordinary num-
Der of teptacles-siX very large ones
and many smaller ones Of various
sizes. 1t was a Notwithstanding crea-
ture, with a fiat, slim body, yellowish
white in color, with black spots and a
hideous cavity of mouth, without
teeth, 1t Is the tentacles of the crea-
tufe that are so dreaded, ON account of
the immense sucking power which
which they possess. After this Incl
dent the divers always took a toma-
hawk with them on their expeditions,
in order to lop of the tenacles of any
octopus that might try to attack them.