The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1911-09-08

young Australian. suggested that we
examine the lagoon carefully betors
committing ourselves to the wStei
We lowered the dingey and taking ne
hydrnscope we began an interesting
examination; SO much did we enjoy
the flora and fauna Of the deep that
we had almost forgotten the prime oh
Ject of our search. when suddenly the
tall seaweed surrounding deep hole
began to sway to and fro aud we saw a
ponderous creature seemingly without
shape or form striving to conceal it.
self within the darkness of that cub.
aquatic cavern.
"a devil-flsh" gasped my compan-
!on. as he pulled away from the reach
of its great teDtaoular arms. ga dew
il-ish." ! repeated, as | sat down in
the stern of the dingey, meditating
its capture.
"You are not thinking of attacking
that octopus, are you?" inquired my
companion. admitted that | was
figuring on that very thing, and we
pulled alongside the La Ventura.
Tying the painter to the poop rail,
we sat down under the awning to plan
the destruction of this member of the
ditranohiata. Many were the plans
we devised, but some of them were i'm
practicable, others neoessitated too
much risk. My companion, who
was daring to point of reoklessness
in adventure. proposed that we cap
ture it as we had caught a very large
shark few weeks previous. by the
common method of hook and bait. We
used a large steel chain hook, about
foot long attached to three feet of
steel chain, a very necessary preoau-
tion to prevent the shark when hooked
from saving the line asunder with its
three rows of formidable teeth. When
the shark was hooked we would dis
patch him with the rife as he came to
the surface. But for various reasons
we deemed this method impraoticable.
We bad almost given up 10 despair.
when | thought Of the awful methods
employed by these oephalopoda in Sc
curing and devouring their prey. |
Neither Alexander, Caesar nor Nap
oleon ever planned conquest with
greater zest than we planned the de-
struction of that sea monster. I un-
folded my plans to my companion
and his eyes sparkled as he thought of
their fruition.
We produced large bottle fro m
the cabin which we filled with gun
inserted rubber fuse. cut
small notch in the cork and carefully
made water proof Then we con
cealed the bottle in the oarcase of
young. goat. We hastily lashed few
planks together. making a small raft.
All these things we took over to where
the devil-6sh lay. We located him
with some difficulty. for-he had cum
ningly drawn. with his long arms all
the eeaweed within reach and to make
his hiding more secure he had covered
his retreat with great cloud of black
sepia; intinotively he let his long arms
move with the motion of the sea weed
and it was with great difficulty we
were able to tell the one from the
other. We anchored the raft imme-
diately over the octopus and then put |
the bait containing the bottle on the |
9ege Of the raft; line was then fas-
.ened to the bait and one to the end of
he fuse, small piece of oily waste
was kindled on the raft and we pulled
away for a short distance; then we
Drought the end of the fuse into con-
act with the burning waste and with
;he other line we rolled the bait
rom the raft. Down it sank, and
;he great monster Immediately en-
,iroled it with its deadly arms. We
pulled still farther away, watching
With intense excitement the result of
,ur drastic plot.
An awful stiffness pervaded the
oene. Even the birds on the shore
,eased their feeding and oraned their
leoks az it in expectation of the co m
ng tragedy. A moment later q mass
# bloody water with the mangled re-
mains Of the octopus was hurled into
5he air. We gave lusty cheer of tri-
lmph and pulled for the scene of bat
lie. Never was carnage more COM
,lete. The sea was literally dyed with
blood and sepia. Large pieces of
bleeding flesh and shattered strips of
zone lay floating on the water; while
he large tentacular arms though sew
red from the body squirmed like dying
makes. AS the vertical rays of
ropical sun beat fiecrely down upon
his battle field, a heavy, sickeniug
dor seemed to rise which drove us
rom the scene of carnage.
We boarded the La Ventura. weighed
anchor and steering our course in
Iortheasterly direction. we came to
mother island of enchanting beauty
where we anchored for the night, de-
on the morrow to explore its
omain and replenish our larder from
be flock of white goats we disoov.
red with the aid of our glasses, feed.