A HAPPY FAMILY. 353 



and with inimitable accuracy sketched off the striking 

 picture they presented. We had indeed ourselves no 

 idea, when we consigned them to the same vessel, 

 what a set of remorseless villains we had to deal with, 

 and much question whether our reformatory prisons 

 could show such an example of appropriate classifica- 

 tion. They were of different sizes, their dimensions 

 progressively increasing in a regular ratio, the biggest 

 being about as large as an ordinary saucer, and seemed 

 each of them at once to be aware of the tender mercies 

 he might expect from his companions, although such 

 a presentiment, if it existed, apparently interfered not 

 a bit with his premeditated designs upon the rest. 

 The game was not long in beginning : the first that 

 ventured out was seized upon at once by the next in 

 size, who, laying hold of his victim as though he had 

 been a biscuit, with one pair of pincers, proceeded 

 deliberately to break up his shell with the other, 

 helping himself to the flesh by means of his finger 

 and thumb with as much deliberation and gusto as if 

 he had been taking snuff from a snuff-box, and appa- 

 rently caring little for the hungry eyes that seemed 

 to glare with savage delight upon the atrocious spec- 

 tacle. The Crab had, however, not very long enjoyed 

 his cannibal feast before his proceedings were, as we 

 thought, very unceremoniously interrupted by the 

 onslaught of a stronger foe, which, seizing him exactly 

 as he had done the first, proceeded to break him up 

 in a similar manner, helping himself with the utmost 

 sang froid to the flesh of his already well-fed victim ; 

 while the latter, strange to say, by no means desisted 

 from his meal upon the crab first slaughtered until 



