heir net, were condemned to be eaten in turn.

"Which is only fair, is it, father?" said Dick laughing.

"Quite fair, Dick," he replied. "It seems to be the law of the sea;
every fish eats those less than itself and gets eaten in its turn. The
only thing with them is, that each one has some chance for its life, and
lives as long as it can."

"I see once a very rum kind of a squid," said Josh, who, while the
mackerel catching went on and no more curiosities were turned out,
seemed disposed to be communicative. "Reg'lar great one he was, at low
water out Lizard way."

"Octopus, perhaps," said Mr Temple.

"No, sir--sort o' squid-like, only very different. He was just like a
dirty bag with eight arms hanging away from it, all covered like with
suckers, and there was two great ugly eyes."

"It was an octopus from your description, my man," said Mr Temple.

"Was it now?" said Josh. "Well, I shouldn't wonder, for it was a horrid
gashly thing, and when I saw it first it was sitting in a pool of clear
water, with a rock hanging over it, looking at me with its big eyes, and
filling itself full of water and blowing it out."

"How large was it?"

"'Bout as big as a bladder buoy, sir, with long arms all round
twissening and twining about like snakes; and when I made up my mind
that whether it come out and bit me or whether it didn't, I'd stir it
up, and I poked at it with a stick, if it didn't shut itself up like and
shoot through the water like an umbrella."

"Undoubtedly an octopus," said Mr Temple; "that is its habit."

"Is it now?" said Josh. "Well, I shouldn't have thought it. Seemed
queer like for a thing with eight long legs to go zizzling through the
water like a shut-up umbrella."

"Did you catch it?" said Dick.

"No, Master Ritchard, sir, I didn't ketch it, only poked at it like with
a stick, for it didn't seem good to eat, and it wasn't the sort of thing
you'd care to put in your pocket, even if you'd got one big enough, so I
left it alone."

"I've heard that they grow very large in the neighbourhood of Jersey,"
said Mr Temple.

"Do they, though?" said Josh. "Well, they're gashly things, and I don't
want to know any more of 'em. Squid and cuttle do very well for us
'bout here."

"Squid, as you call them, are found of immense size in the cold seas
towards and in the Arctic circle, large enough, they say, to upset a
boat."

"Then I'm glad this is not the Arctic circle," cried Dick. "Only fanc