05 - Within the Deep by R. Cadwallader Smith - The Ogre of the Deep

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Lesson five of Within the Deep by R. Cadwalader Smith.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Lesson five
The Ogre of the Deep. The ogre of the fairy
tale is bad enough, but for evil looks, the octopus
is worse still. With his tough, brownish skin, knobbed like

(00:23):
the toad's back, his large staring eyes, his parrots beak,
and ugly bag of a body, the octopus is a
horrid looking creature. Add to this eight long arms, twisting
and writhing like snakes, and you have an idea of
the most hideous inhabitant of the deep. Then, like the ogre,

(00:44):
the octopus lives in a cavern and goes forth at
night to claim his victims. He tears them to pieces
and returns to his dark cavern when daylight comes. Before
seeing how this ugly monster lives, eats, breathes, fights, we
must know something of the way he is made. In
the first place, it may surprise you to know that

(01:06):
the octopus's body is made on the same plan as
that of the snail. The ogre of the Ocean and
the garden snail are second cousins. Their family name mollusc
means soft bodied. But there are such numbers of molluscs
that we split them up into different orders, just as
a big school is split into classes. The octopus belongs

(01:30):
to an order of molluscs with a long name, which
only means head footed. Why is he called head footed?
The snail, as you know, has one broad foot under
its body. The foot of the octopus is divided into
eight strips. These long strips are set round his head,
hence the name head footed. Because there are eight of

(01:53):
these long feet, he is named octopus or eight feet.
The feet, or arms, or tentacles as they are called,
are joined at their base by a skin. It makes
a sort of webbing. In the center of this is
a horny beak, usually of a brownish color. It is
just like a parrot's beak, only of thinner and lighter stuff.

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There are two parts to it, the top one curving
down over the lower one. Behind this beaked mouth is
a hard rasping tongue. On each side of the head
is a big staring eye, and behind the ugly head
is the ugly body like a bag. The octopus breathes
by means of gills. Water enters through a big hole

(02:39):
under the head passes over the gills and out again
through a funnel or siphon. Now the octopus can make
good use of this siphon. Sometimes he is attacked and
wishes to make himself scarce, so he sends the water
rapidly through the siphon. The force is enough to jerk
him quickly backwards, his arms trailing behind. The octopus and

(03:03):
his relations have another dodge as well. They possess a
bag of inky fluid. By mixing this ink with the
spurt of water from the funnel, the octopus leaves a
thick cloud behind him. The enemy is lost in this
dark cloud, while the octopus starts safely away, having no
armor to protect him and no shelley home like that

(03:26):
of the snail. The octopus is an easy prey to
large fish, seals, and whales, so this trick of shooting
backwards hidden in a cloud of ink must be of
great use. Soldiers and sailors use clouds of smoke to
baffle their enemy in battle, the octopus uses clouds of ink. Sharks,

(03:47):
conger eels, and whales are able to fight the octopus
and eat his soft body, but small fish and crabs
keep away from the ogre if they can. This is
not easy, for he hides away under rocks, watching with
his great eyes for passing prey. If anything comes near enough,
out flicks a long, tapering, snaky arm and holds the

(04:10):
victim tight down. The inside of each arm are nearly
three hundred round suckers. Each one acts like those leather
suckers with which boys sometimes play. Once fixed, it is
nearly impossible to unloose them without chopping or tearing the
arm to pieces. First one and then another sucker takes hold,

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and the wretched victim is drawn up to the ogre's beak,
with no chance of escape. When one sees the grasping
power of even a small octopus, it is easy to
believe that a large one would be a dangerous enemy.
The strongest swimmer would stand no chance. Those clinging arms
could hold two or three men under water. Luckily, the

(04:55):
octopus has no wish to attack people. It is not fierce,
but to the crabs it must seem an awful ogre.
I once watched an octopus on the lookout for food.
It had its lair between two rocks, its twining arms
showing outside, its eyes and body in the shadow along

(05:16):
came a crab scuttling near the rocks. He spied the
ogre at once, stopping and raising his claws as crabs
do like a boxer, ready to fight. The crab, having
strong pincers and a good suit of armor, I expected
to see him fight for life. But no, Like poor
Bunny chased by the dreaded stoat, the crab gave in

(05:39):
as soon as the ogre flicked him with an arm.
The suckers gripped him fast, and still holding up his claws,
he was drawn into the den of his dreadful enemy.
Although armed with the beak, the octopus seems not to
use it against the crab. He prefers to pull the
poor crab to pieces with his strong arms, and then

(06:00):
to pick up the crab meat with the hooked beak.
When full fed, he retires to his den. He sometimes
pulls shells and stones over the entrance, and rests within
until hungry. In this strange order of mollusks, there are
dwarfs and giants. One kind is never more than two
inches long. Others are vast monsters. The octopus is big

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enough and ugly enough to make one shudder to see him,
But the real ogre of the deep is the giant
cuddle fish, beside which the octopus is a tiny mite.
These giant cuddles have ten arms, two of them being
very long. The octopus's body is round like that of
a fat spider, while the cuddle has a long body.

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The cuddle has many sharp claws on its arms, besides
numbers of big, strong suckers. It holds and tears its
prey at the same time. Its staring eyes are like
big black lanterns on each side of the head. The
head twists this way and that, so that nothing escapes
the glare of those horrible eyes. Lurking in the dark

(07:12):
depths of the sea, these giant cuddles wait for large fish, crabs,
or even their own relations to come near. Like hideous
gigantic spiders, they are the terror of the ocean caverns.
They are so large that they have few enemies to fear. Indeed,
it is surprising that any animal dares to attack such

(07:33):
a monster, but that other giant, the sperm whale, dives
deep into the home of the cuddles purposely to attack
and eat them. The sperm whale must attack these big
creatures in order to get enough food. He has such
a huge barn like body to fill that only these
big cuddles will satisfy him. Whale hunters sometimes catch a

(07:56):
glimpse of terrific combats between these giants of the deep.
The sperm wins the battle, for he is nearly always
found to contain great pieces of the ogre's arms. Although
the octopus and the cuddle are related to the snail
and whelk, they have no shell. Their bodies are naked.
Neither do they grow a backbone or skeleton. But inside

(08:19):
the body the cuddle has a plate of chalk, which
you may find on the shore. Some kinds have a
long strip of transparent substance, like a large feather. Fishermen
use the smaller kinds of cuddle as bait. You will
find it quite easy to cut out the beaks and
bone for yourself, or the fishermen will not mind saving

(08:40):
them for you. Exercises one What is the meaning of
the words mollusk and octopus? Two? How does the octopus
capture its prey? Three? How does the octopus escape its enemies? Four?
What creatures prey on the cuddle and octopus? End of

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less than five