Octopus attack

During World War I, a teenager named John Rau was walking on the coast near Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia, along with some other boys and a clergyman. Rau recounted his experience in Frank W. Lane's Kingdom of the Octopus:

"We were proceeding along the sea edge at the base of cliffs and bluffs, a jumble of rock, some stratified and shelving. I was about six or seven paces behind the parson, who was leading, when I heard him shout and looked toward him. He was standing on a shelf of rock abou...