Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23


III Speaking as diver-not a
seaman, or q whaler, or anything
else-fhis is the most formidable monster of
our working world. 1t is without sensational
ISM the Terror of the Deep.
First of all, it has eight long arm-feet.
coming off from around hideous mouth, and
these eight arms are just like eight boa con-
strictors all going at the same time, for their
swift. flexible movements are precisely those Of
an active snake. When he stands up to the
height of man and oozes or darts forward
backward sideways, any ways, these eight sinu-
Gus arms are all going at the same time; when
he climbs swiftly up over a cliff like a spider,
or creeps under an overhanging reef every part
of these eight arms is continually doing some
thing.
He is horribly, frighteningly alive And
then suddenly he'll stop-and be horribly
dead, turn to any color to match his back
ground, no matter what, mimic the shapes
about him, lying in wait for his prey
Under water one becomes accustomed to all
sorts of startling color changes, but there's no
animal in all the world who equal the
octopus in initiating anything. The fishes are
amateurs beside him; he'll initiate pink red,
purple, blue coral-Tve seen him break out
with dark stripes. AS you study him, you feel
the Creator has given him everything"
IN these words, Victor Berge, a Swedish boy
who ran away to sea, begins one of the most
startling scientific adventure yarns ever spun
by . sailor Berge, who sailed in Hellships,
slowed away, and drifted all over the Indian
and South Pacific Oceans, finally became q
pearl diver. and it was while hunting pearl
oysters on the ocean floor that he encountered
the octopus at home and fought him in his own
back yard. Berge's story, Pearl Diver" was
set down by Henry Wysham Lanier, and has
gust been published by Doubleday, DOran 81 Co.
This head-foot' molIusk," Diver Berge con-
tinues, IN relating his story to Mr.. Lanier, has
along the inside Of each Of his eight arms
double row OF protruding suckers which, whec
It clamps them frmly against anything, form
\ vacuum and cling like q monstrous leech:
and where these radiating lines Of suckers meet,
around his voracious belly mouth. there is a
perfect mesh of similar gripping suction disks.
Amy prey forced by these loathsome, muscular,
grasping arms into that pit of adheSiveness is
held fast in the very jaws Of destruction. For
here gapes great heshy mouth, and just
within the opening q big, hooked beak like an
Overgrown parrot OF toucan. This horny
weapon can cut or tear to pieces soft flesh;
it can rip open the shells Of the crabs which
seem to be customary food
There Is q tremendous force back of all this
terrible mechanism; the octopus seems to gulp
down whole living creatures, or big gobbets
ripped out, and somehow get rid Of the bones.
The size of the mouthfuls he win take in is
quite incredible unless one has actually watched
him feeding.
In addition to all this, masking his move
ments and for retreat or masking his defense,
be possesses an Ink sac.
: sSWHEN he wants to cover up his retreat
and prepare for another attack, he can
squirt out q cloud of this bIue-black liquid
laying his smoke screen for yards about, while
he darts in among the rocks and creeps out
for an unexpected assault.
: Personally Tn convinced that the chief
reason know 50 little about him is that
his true home is in the unexplored depths of
100 fathOms or more. We know just nothing
from actual observation Of 6OO-foot depths
undersea. He lives down there this giant
octopus, and the only time he comes even to
the shadows Is during the breeding season.
They are always In pairs when man comes in
contact with them.
THE female, larger than the male finds a
quiet place. some deep crevice or lonely cavern,
and lays long strings Of eggs, like ropes with
knots hanging there in the cavern. Both
parents hang about until they hatch out the
whole process taking apparently a couple of
months.
The young octopi 60 straight to the surface,
play around the rocks. lie along the beach:
they seem to enjoy summing themselves. WheR
they are three Or four months old they begin
to seek the depths.
II had listened to plenty Of awed tales by
natives and white men q this monster
AT 10. with my own experience, day after
day. on many pearl beds. my answer had always
been, Rubbish
CITIZEN got my FIRST lesson.
I'VE we're coming down from northeast
B0rneo TO Macassar Strait That Is in my
opinion the meanest, ugilest. most Godforsaken
coast Ia the world. q succession of dirty rivers
and swamps and reefs and real wild men of
BOrueo and fevers. A ghastly country.
I'VE were just above the Equator perhaps 40
miles north Of Cape Manga THAT, when we
sighted couple Of little islands So we put in
% get turtie-for that means eggs and fresh