FIGHT WITH AN OCTOPUS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2720, 27 January 1910, Page 3

FIGHT WITH AN OCTOPUS.

AT PALMER HEAD. WADER’S THRILLING ADVENTURE. Octopuses on our coasts are known to be fairly numerous (says tlio “Dominion”), and waders and bathers sometimes take chances which are not pleasant to- contemplate, for the strength of the tentacles of these hideous denizens of the deep is astonishingly great when the comparatively small size of the creatures is taken into account. Some throe months ago, it is stated that one of the. men engaged on the corporation’s septic tank in the vicinity of Island Bay, when shovelling gravel for concrete on the edge of fairly deep water, had his shovel suddenly seized, and. in a trial of strength between man. and octopus, the latter won, and the shovel was lost. On Saturday afternoon, however, Mr. C. A. Nairn, residing) in Abel Smith Street, and in the employ of the City Corporation, met with an adventure in the vicinity of Palmer Head which reads like a page from Victor Hugo’s “Toilers of the Sea.” It appears that Air. Nairn and a companion had proceeded out to Seatoun, and, having fishing linos with them, made their way south along the shore past Rolling Bay. The fishing proved unsuccessful, and, leaving his companion to attend to the lines, Air. Nairn made his way among the rocks for some distance further south. Arriving at a little inlet between the rocks, he divested himself, of some of his clothing, and was Boon busy detaching mussels from the rocks with his knife. The water in which he was standing at the time was almost waist high, and, observing a “roller” breaking in, he turned to escape it. As lie turned shoreward he tripped and fell, one of his feet having been caught by ivhat he imagined at the time to be a riband of seaweed. Next- instant the surge overtook him, and, in making a desperate effort to recover his footing, lie lost his only means of offence —his knife. Half-choked by the blinding spray and water, he struggled to his feet, levering himself up the rock b- catching hold of projecting pinnacles, and as liis other foot and legs .were now enveloped, it needed no great power of divination to tell him that he bail been gripped by an octopus. It was a decidedly ugly situation. His companion was out of sight, and the assistance of another fisherman standing on a rock nearly hali-a-mile away, consequently unable to see, was not to b.o thought of. The imprisoned man however retained his presence of mind, and, after some twenty minutes spent in waving one of his arms, he succeeded in attracting the attention of Air. C. F. Carruthers. and Misses Gregg and Walsingham. AVhen they came on The scone Air. Nairn explained his unpleasant predicament, but as no member of the party had any implement of offence with them, Air. Carruthers, after ascertaining that Air. Nairn could “hang <in,” returned back along the hill for a piece of angle iron which he fortunately had noticed, and, with this implement in one hand and a piece of jabbed gaspipe in the other, entered the water. Operations were still difficult, for the back-wash of the undertow swept the fine gravel from under both men’s feet, and it- was difficult to keep one’s footing. Luckily the octopus proved only to be a “passive resistor,” and at each blow of the jagged iron made no further movement- than to retire int-o the cranny in the rock in which lie was firmly established, and after receiving about a score of vigorous jabs ; let go altogether and retired out of sight under the rook. Air. Nairn was assisted to shore, oral, although the skin had boon broken in places bv the grip of the creature, it was found that the effects of the adventure ivere nothing more than shock. Some stimulants were procured, and, after partaking of .these, lie was assisted as far as- the- Seatoun tram terminus, and sent home.