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Devil-fishes

Denys Montfort describes an encounter between an octopus with arms three feet long and a great mastiff whose courage and strength had overcome a wolf which attacked his master. The dog first ran around the devil-fish trying to seize its arms; but the creature skilfully withdrew each in turn, and used them to lash the dog over the back as if with whips. The angry dog at length got hold of an arm, but was immediately embraced by four others, which threatened to strangle him. The octopus started toward the water, its helpless victim howling piteously and the colour of its body changing from purplish to red. It made good headway, clinging to rocks as it went with its four free arms. M. Montfort here interfered, and succeeded in wrenching loose two arms from the dog's body. The octopus uttered cries like the angry growl of a watch dog. Leaving the dog it attacked the man. but was at length overpowered. Though the arms spread nine feet, the body was not larger than a small pumpkin.

One feature of the attack quite as important to reckon with as the remarkable strength of the creature's arms, is the cold, sickening, slimy feel of them. The horror of a personal encounter with a devil-fish will never be made more real to those fortunate enough to miss this thrilling experience than Victor Hugo has made it in his "Toilers of the Sea." Though lacking in scientific accuracy, it is still a zoological and rhetorical classic.