18 DECEMBER 1875, Page 21

The Octopus. By Henry Lee, F.L.S. (Chapman and Hall.)—Mr. Lee,

in his capacity as naturalist of the Brighton Aquarium, has had ample opportunity of studying the habits of this devil-fish of fiction, and has written a humorous and highly interesting account of his observations. A chapter is occupied by the plot of Victor Hugo's novel, "Les Travailleurs de la Mer," and he proceeds to point out what is fiction and what fact in the novelist's description of this mollusc. Part of the book treats of the principal characteristics of the octopus's relations, the cuttle-fish and the squirl, with a description of some gigantic specimens. The book is sure to be popular with all who frequent aquaria.