Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1900-01-03
! HELD D"BY.s.aAN OCTOPUS.
The Story of a Terrible Situation.
BY HERBERT PERKINS.

- Finding was likely to be kept IL
Sydney for q considerable time,
bought third share in large opes
sailing boat. The other shareholder:
: were her, skipper aud gentleman
who only showed up for sail oc:a
sionally on holidays. AS for the skip
per and I, we fairly lived in her aut
: spent nearly all our time knocking
about tho harbor, camping i'll oul
boat, and between fishing, shooting
\ ETC. &here was some shooting to bt
!. got in those days, we had good lazy
old time of it.
On entering Sydney Heads you see
fine bluff headland facing you. This
is Middle Head, and the water OF the
Il harbor, proper. leading up to the city,
flows round its left-hand side; whilst
round the other fine wide. branc IL
called Middle Ha-bor runs inland TO:
many miles. Middle Harbor was then
rsans ideal camping grourd for boating
and fishing parties, and greatly Of
fected by US. At The time OF the oc-
currences am going to relate We hal
been. down there some days, and with
us was a lad some years younger than
myself. We called him Charley; he
was first-rate boatman,a good fisher
man and5a frequent member of our
!, crew.
The skipper had gone overland to
North Sydney on some business, and
= zss-ss.ai
{ thia time We haa d fad for atchiih the
common green rock cells; ~ 9ratherTfor
coaxing them out of. their holes with q
baited hook on the end of stick. pOn
the morning IL question, leaving the
& yacht nlooreti out in the stream, We
pulled ashore in the hysbent- on
thi,pfatherssill ysport. To make what
{ follows clear, i must explain that the
,hills shutting in, Middle Harbor: are
mostly rather steep, and come down
boldly into the water. Along the foot
of them, however, there is, IN many
places, level fat shelf of what I will
call sea rocks, only covered at high
water. The width of this shelf varies
greatly, and is in pla:es Uttered over
with boulders and stones, fallen from
the hill-sides. Just beyond where We
landed on this shelf is a high steep
point, round which the harbor turns;
and little way on our side of it there
had been, at some time OF other, a
9 regular avalanche from above of great
q rocks and large fat slabs Of sandstone,
which had piled themselves against
one another (, in an almost systematic
manner.
As Charley and I were passing
round the edge of this avalanche, I
noticed for the fret time though I
. had often been that way betore) an
opening between two of the rock slabs
facing the water. and Immediately
over a wide issureEin .the-shelf.a There
was plenty Of room to get through at
that.stase Of the tide, which had just
.--turned-for-t the food,T and sol decided
to have look inside, while my mate
went on round the point I presently
found that the fissure ran into cir.
.cular rock hole some Is feet in, diam
eter, rooted in by the overlapping
rock slabs. Round it on one side was
a narrow ledge, barely foot wide,T ron
which these rocks; rested, ,but from the
way they slanted over the water I
Could only get along the ledge in a
very awkward fashion-at one time
going sideways with my back to the
rocks and leaning forward over the
pool After sliding along as far as I
could get, I saw there was no chance
of eel-fshing there. and was going
back when, unfortunately for ME, I
stopped to admire the beauty of the
pool. The water was about four feet
deep, nearly awash with the ledge, and
pelfectly clear. In the middle large
boulder, Ikea miniature island, rose
above Che water, and all around it and
the sides of the pool there waved a
most lovely wealth Of seaweeds of
many colors and shspes-corallines,
sea-anemones and other marine
growths, It was a regular little asea
garden. may as we'll mention also
that I was barefoot and bare-legged
up to the knees at the time. .As was
standing, admiring these marine beau
ties,awith my right foot slightly over
the ledge, I suddenly felt something
like strip of wet aabby green hide
flap round my right ankle, and looking
down. you may imagine my thrill of
horror when I saw. that itewas the
.teDfacleof afSoctopus, <.he creature to
which it belonged gbeing sunderneath
the ledge, here undermined by the
water, and therefore justgout of sight.
In the fright it gave mel dropped my
eel-stick into the water, and was in
the act Of STOPPING to try and recover
it,when, 7 suddenly, thought of what
one Of tile Balmaiu watermen had told
me,onls few days before. He b.:
BEEN out at low water one morning
after bait, and while lying down fat
on some ro ks with his head over the
water, poking about. with i sort of
harpoonI called q muttcn-stick, and
5 searching for astar- fish he knew to be
there, the. creature had whipped q
tentacle, round his ne ,kj anil the only
wayne could get loose was .to.roll
ovdf infa tie witer, which was only up
8 4,, sbia lr1.ness md, FIJI arr oettinfo 81 firm,