The Octopus

CHAPTER X.

GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISHES 99

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FIG. PAGE THE OCTOPUS (Octopus vulgaris) Frontispiece.

1. THE PAPER NAUTILUS (Argonauta Argo) 5

2. SUCKER OF THE OCTOPUS 21

3. MANDIBLES OF THE OCTOPUS 25

4. TONGUE OF THE OCTOPUS 26

5. THE OCTOPUS SWIMMING 28

6. EGGS OF THE OCTOPUS 58

7. THE COMMON CUTTLE-FISH (Sepia officinalis) 67

8. SEPIOLA RONDELETII 70

9. THE COMMON SQUID (Loligo vulgaris) 71

10. EGGS OF THE CUTTLE-FISH (Sepia officinalis) 73

11. SPAWN OF THE COMMON SQUID (Loligo vulgaris) 76

12. FAC-SIMILE OF DE MONTFORT’S “Poulpe Colossal” 101

INTRODUCTION.

More than 2200 years ago—nearly four centuries before the Evangelists wrote their imperishable histories of the events on which the faith of Christendom is based—Aristotle, the celebrated naturalist of Stageira, in Macedonia, recorded observations of the habits and reproduction of the Octopus which clearly show that he was more intimately acquainted with its mode of life than any writer of a later date between his day and ours.

For how many centuries before his time facts and fallacies concerning this curious animal were handed down from father to son in oral tradition, and from generation to generation in manuscript, ages before printing was invented, it is impossible to say: he occasionally quotes from the works of previous writers, and Strabo tells us that he had a good collection of books, and was the first philosopher who possessed a library of his own. But the faint glimmering of information to be derived from early bookish lore was insufficient to satisfy his desire and that of his sovereign for more complete and perfect knowledge. Alexander the Great, who, in his youth, was under his tuition for ten years, gave him, therefore, the means of extending his researches, by placing at his disposal a large sum of money and a staff of assistants. According to Pliny the latter were sent to various parts of Asia and Greece under orders to collect animals of all kinds, and by means of vivaria, fishponds, aviaries, &c., “to watch their habits so closely that nothing relating to them should remain unknown.” Aristotle thus accumulated a multitude of notes and observations, many of which, though ridiculed and discredited by later zoologists, were marvellously accurate; and from them constructed a work elaborate in its details, grand in its conception and idea, and comprehensive as a general history of the Animal Kingdom.

Amongst the inhabitants of the sea therein described by him is, as I have said, the Octopus or Polypus, and many of his statements concerning it and its congeners have been remarkably confirmed by recent observations. This animal has, therefore, been long known to naturalists. The ancient Egyptians figured it amongst their hieroglyphics; the Greeks and Romans were well acquainted with it; and since the time of Homer many of the ancient poets and authors have mentioned it in their works.

There is little doubt that the idea of the Lernean Hydra, whose heads grew again when cut off by Hercules, originated from a knowledge of the Octopus. Diodorus relates of it that it had a hundred heads; Simonides says fifty; but the generally received statement is that of Apollodorus, Hyginus, &c., that it had only nine. Reduce the number by one, and we have an animal with eight out-growths from its trunk—the type of an Octopus, which is really capable of rapidly developing afresh, and replacing by new ones, one or all of its eight limbs in case of their being amputated or injured. According to the legend, Hercules dipped his arrow-heads in the gall of the hydra, and, from its poisonous nature, all the wounds he inflicted with them on his enemies proved fatal. It is worthy of notice that the ancients attributed to the Octopus the possession of a similarly venomous secretion. Thus Oppian writes:—

“The crawling preke a deadly juice contains, Injected poison fires the wounded veins.”

Fishermen have been familiar with this animal from time immemorial; but in modern days, although naturalists have occasionally noted some peculiarities of its structure and habits, public attention was never particularly attracted to it until, within the last few years, Victor Hugo brought it again into notice by the publication of his “Les Travailleurs de la Mer.” Since then it has been constantly exhibited in aquaria, and “Octopus” has become a household word.

THE OCTOPUS.

CHAPTER I.. The Octopus and Its Relatives.

THE OCTOPUS AND ITS RELATIVES.

It is not my intention to formally portray the anatomy of the Octopus,—the nature and uses of its various organs will be sufficiently indicated in the course of my remarks,—but before giving an account of its life-history and habits, I will briefly describe its affinities, and the position it occupies in the scale of Nature.

One of the great primary groups or divisions of the Animal Kingdom is that of the soft-bodied MOLLUSCA; which includes the cuttle, the oyster, the snail, &c. It has been separated into five “classes,” of which the one we have especially to notice is the Cephalopoda, or “head-footed,”—the animals belonging to it having their feet, or the organs which correspond with the foot of other molluscs, so attached to the head as to form a circle or coronet round the mouth. Some of these have the foot divided into eight lobes, and are therefore called the Octopoda: others have, in addition to the eight feet, lobes, or arms, two longer tentacular appendages, making ten in all, and are consequently called the Decapoda.

Of the ten-footed section of the cephalopods, there are four “families”; two only of which exist in Britain—the Teuthidæ, and the Sepiidæ. The Teuthidæ are the Squids, or Calamaries, represented by the long-bodied Loligo vulgaris, that has along its back a gristly, translucent stiffener, shaped like a quill pen; from which and its ink it derives its names of “calamary,” “pen-and-ink fish,” and “sea-clerk.” The Sepiidæ are the Cuttles; as a type of which we may take the common “cuttle-fish,” Sepia officinalis, the owner of the hard, calcareous shell often thrown up on the shore, and known as “cuttle-bone,” or “sea-biscuit.”

Of the eight-footed cephalopods,—the Octopoda,—there are two families; namely, the Octopidæ, and the Argonautidæ. The first only is found on our coasts. The British members of it are the common Octopus, O. vulgaris, and the Eledone, E. cirrosa, a genus chiefly distinguished from the octopus by its having only one row of suckers, instead of two, along its arms or feet. The Argonautidæ, which inhabit warmer seas than ours, and approach no nearer to us than the Mediterranean and Adriatic, are represented by Argonauta argo, the “Paper Nautilus,”—so called from the peculiar texture of its shell, and the similarity of its shape to that of the true Nautilus, N. pompilius, from which, however, it differs greatly in organisation.

All of these four “families” have two plume-like gills,—one on each side—and are therefore placed by Professor Owen in the “order,” Dibranchiata. To this order belong also the extinct Belemnites, and the still living Spirula, only one entire specimen of which has ever been obtained, and that was in New Zealand, though its beautiful internal shells are sometimes thrown up on the shores of Devon and Cornwall.

The Tetrabranchiata, or four-gilled cephalopods, are represented by a single living genus—the Pearly Nautilus, N. pompilius,—but in Silurian times by 34 genera, and more than 1400 species.

The following diagram will help to explain the relationship of the Octopus to the rest of the cephalopoda.

MOLLUSCA. /----------------------—|---------------------------\ Classes. Cephalopoda. Pteropoda. Lamellibranchiata. | Gasteropoda. Brachiopoda. | /----|---------------------------------------\ Orders. Dibranchiata. Tetrabranchiata. | | /----|-------------—\ /-------------|------------\ Sections. Decapoda. Octopoda. Nautilidæ. Ammonitidæ. | | Orthoceratidæ. | +------------------------+ | | /----|-----------------------\ /--------—|---------—\ Families. Teuthidæ. Sepiidæ. Spirulidæ. Octopidæ. Argonautidæ. | Belemnitidæ. | | | | | | | /--|---—\ /-----—|--—\ /----|-----\ | Genera. The Squids: The Cuttles: The Octopus; | Loligo, &c. Sepia, &c. O. vulgaris, &c. | | /-----------|-----\ The Paper Nautilus: Argonauta.

It will be seen that it may be said to be first cousin to the Argonaut, or “Paper Nautilus,” and second cousin to the cuttle and squid.

The Argonaut branch of the family is in possession of all the house property, which seems to have been entailed on the female line; for the paper-nautilus is, in fact, a female octopod provided with a shell in which to carry and protect her eggs. Instead of the whole of the eight arms tapering to a point, as in the octopus, two of the dorsal limbs are flattened out at their extremity, and from their membranes she secretes, and, if necessary, repairs the shell, and, by applying them closely to its outer surface on each side, holds herself within it; for it is not fastened to her body by any attaching muscles.

The male argonaut is very small,—not more than an inch in length,—and has no shell. Hence, even by eminent naturalists, as Dumeril and De Blainville, it was long regarded as doubtful whether the shell was really secreted by the female, or whether, like the hermit-crab, she borrowed for her protection the empty habitation of some other mollusc.

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