478 Natural History in foreign Cowiiries : — 



distinct species, the white and the black, although described 

 by systematic writers as being only varieties of the Cancer 

 ruricola. The black crab is found abundantly in the eastern 

 and northern parishes of the island during particular periods 

 of the year : it is of the blackness of the lobster, and of a 

 very light and handsome shape, as compared with any other 

 species : it is very active upon its legs, and runs fast. Most 

 persons conversant with the delicacies of foreign regions have 

 heard of the deliciousness of this creature as an article of 

 food ; and, in proof of the truth of such opinion, I may mention 

 the circumstance of having dined in company with a gentle- 

 man, at his first meeting with the black crab, who had nothing 

 of the epicure or gourmand about him, but habitually gave 

 the preference to the plainest food, and avoided spices, wine, 

 and other luxuries in ordinary use with other people : but the 

 black crab proved too much even for this practical philoso- 

 pher in diet and regimen ; and so completely did it get the 

 better of him, that, after eating two or three mouthfuls, he 

 very deliberately put down his knife and fork, to express more 

 leisurely and emphatically his admiration of the exquisite food 

 then for the first time before him ; declaring that all he had 

 ever read, heard, or imagined, appertaining to that or other 

 delicious productions, fell short, infinitely short, of the reality 

 he then enjoyed. There is a very good general history of 

 this curious animal, under the article Cancer, in Rees's 

 Cyclopcedia, 



The white land crab is very abundant in the lowland districts 

 of the south side of the island : it is rather larger than the 

 black, and not so handsomely shaped, or so active in its move- 

 ments. During my stay at Port Henderson, in June, 1823, 

 there were some heavy showers of rain after a long-continued 

 drought, when the crabs came out of their holes in vast 

 numbers : they entered and walked all about the house. The 

 weather being very sultry, I had my chamber door open at 

 night: the crabs came into my room, and made a rustling 

 noise, by laying hold of a dry goatskin (used as a covering 

 to my portmanteau), which awoke me. They came to the 

 bedposts, and, being awkward creatures to deal with in the 

 dark, I was satisfied with watching that they did not climb up 

 the bedposts, and get into the bed. The servants, and among 



ness, even when encumbered with a bundle of food almost as big as 

 itself. This food is grass, or the green stalks of rice ; and it is amusing to 

 see the crabs, sitting, as it were, upright, to cut their hay witji their sharp 

 pincers, then waddling off with their sheaf to their holes, as quickly as 

 their sidelong pace will carry them " — .7. D. 



