A QUEER ADVENTURE.

Southland Times, Issue 9388, 30 November 1886, Page 4

A QUEER ADVENTURE.

As t^ran I kept my eyea fixed on Bi^to. **«> *^8 ia a *?&P}* manner. Aftefk every few seconds his hewNrbuld disappear beneath the water in which he stood, then it would appear again. ' He seemed to <be strugfling>iolently. Aa I approached him c threw up hi 6 hands and cried out in accents that haunt me still : ' For beaven'g sate, lieutenant, quick, and help me !' I dashed^ oat to him through water up to my waist. " 1 T^hat is it ? What has hold of you? I exclaimed. , i 1 It's a big oyster or a big clam, he groaned. «I was wading here and stepped into it, I expect. Its shell closed— gripped my ankle— and to save my life I can't; get away— and the tide :>- : \^ll^onll«;pyer..bnr heads here ! ' he with something almoßt like a sdb&K had been struggling here for fiftwn^r twenty minutes. I'had heard of the tridacena gigas, or mons^r clam, of this coast, and instantly realized the danger of h?s situation. ; ■■• Courage old fellow ! ' I said. « I'll atickbyyou. Here, hold this paddle and the hatchet.' ducked down under water, and with my hands felt about his foot. The huge mollusk had what might be well" : termed a death-grip on him. The creature's shell was several feet long and of- proportionate breadth, arid th weight. -of the shell-fish must have been at least 300 pounds. The oreature was attached to the coral rock by a grisly byssusas thick as my arm. Raising myietf, I got breath, then, seizing the pacldle, thrasi the shaft of it between the converging edges of the two valves of tbi shell, and using it as a lever attempted to pry the shell apart. But I could nptopen it. Brown, too, ducking do.wn, seized hold with his hands and pulled with all his strength, but exerting all our power we could not release the monsters-hold. Again and again I threw my whole weight on the shaft of the paddle, and at length broke it, By^this time the water was up to my shoulders when I stood up. Fully realizing that whatever I did must be done in a few minutes more, else the poor fellow would drown, I snatched the hatchet from Brown's hand, and. diving tried tocut under the shell, to break the creature's anchorage on the rock. With might and main I cub and hacked— then rose an instant for bereath — then down and at it egain. But it seemed as though I could not cut through the tough muscle. Four times I dived and, with frantic haste, cut at those toiigh bysai. 'It stirs ! ' at length Browu cried, braoing his weight upon his free foot and lifting at it. Then with a final blow the byssus was severed, and the buoyancy of the water aiding us, we dragged the great mollusk — still fast to Brown's ankle — back to higher ground on the reef. Here the water was waist deep, however, and I looked anxiously around for Mac, in the lakatoi. To my inexpressible joy he was close at hand, and between us we lifted Brown, with his now captered captor, into the canoe. Even then we could not, both of us together, pry the valves of the shell apart enough to release Brown's foot, till with a knife we had reached iii and completely divided the tridacena — sawing asunder the hinge-muscles at the base of the bivalve. It was truly a gigantic claro, and, as a poetic retribution upon it for this attempt on the life of one of our number, we ate a portion of its flesh for our supper, but found it rather tough. Brown's ankle was severely bruised and wrenched, and he suffered for many a day from the vice-like grip of the huge mollusc.