Can't SELECT any CLOB fields

I have an Oracle 8.1.74 database here at work. There is a table that has a CLOB datatype in it. If i try to select data from the table, including the CLOB field, i get an error: Data type is not supported.

The SQL statement would look something like: SELECT RecordID, TextInClob FROM tbl_Sample

I have searched the internet, and been unable to figure out how to retrieve the data in the CLOB field. Most answers point to something about Microsoft not supporting CLOB. But that seems a little too strange.

Has anyone had any experiance in selecting CLOB data from Oracle? I'd love to get a viable solution.

No one else has ever encountered something like thus? :(