Golden Eye (Octopussy)

George Orwell once wrote that

'a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl'

I wouldn't mind betting that when George Orwell wrote this, he had never starred at an Octopus straight in the eye. I was privileged enough today to visit Seattle Aquarium, where they have the largest Octopus in the world living underneath the very aquarium in the sea (Giant Pacific.....18ft and up). There were two octopus on display, both had just been moved into their new tanks and as a result were curious to explore their new environment. These animals have an intelligence comparable to dogs, so need constant mental stimulation. A new tank is an exiting thing! Anyway, Octopus have an amazing ability to change colour, basically by controlling how much red pigment is released to the surface of their skin...but interestingly today I noticed it was not just their skin, but also their eyes.

The eye of an octopus is one that looks right back at you, with an equally inquisitive look. The pupil itself is rectangular, similar to a goat's eye, yet their is no malevolence in the eye of an octopus. The colouring around the pupil is similar to bronze or other atomised metals such as platinum which have been sprayed as a mist into liquid glass. Not only is this amazing colour always flashing at you, but there is a deep speckled red in this texture too, which pulses in and out, according to the mood of the creature. It is however, very subtle, and if you look close enough, you can see the gentle mist of colour flow through their eyes in time with their triple heart beat as the look right back at you.

I sometimes wonder what they are thinking about me. Probably something like 'I wonder how tasty his big brain is' and 'how hard would it be to crack into it and suck it out.......mmmmm brains.....'

Something like that probably.