THE STODY OF NATURE. if 



cased article rather upset my faith in the idea, as the utter impossibility 

 of a fine tuft of weed half an inch high, springing up in three days, 

 was more than I could fancy. Taking the crab out and carefully examin- 

 ing it, I found the weed was not growing, being merely laid across and 

 cemented in some manner, and on looking at the contents of the aquarium, 

 I saw it had been taken from a large tuft under which I first found it. 

 This weed could only have been nipped off, as there were no floating 

 fragments; and further, the weed could not have been torn off, by the 

 hairs being much too strong and healthy for that. There is a small 

 specimen of the same class in one of my troughs, which has during the 

 last few days varied his covering by a few bits of Alvce, this plant being 

 the principal vegetable part of my stock. 



I therefore beg to suggest that although the coverings of many of 

 these crabs are in a healthy state and growing, such growth is not the 

 result of the first mechanical attachment, excepting in an indirect way, 

 as any temporary attachment would eventually decay and die out, not 

 before such secured germs might have escaped from them, and being 

 received on the shell, there form root and flourish; still it is just as 

 likely that those regularly rooted, make their appearance in the same 

 manner as they do on the rocks and stones by purely natural causes, 

 and at the same time it appears to be a wise provision of the Great 

 Creator, that these defenceless creatures should, at their most helpless 

 stage, (when they have just cast their old and hard shell for a new and 

 soft one,) be able to frame a temporary covering and shelter for themselves, 

 until time has elapsed sufficient for the regular growth of a more perfect 

 and lasting one. I may remark that all that I have seen being littoral 

 specimens were covered with Alga, the Zoophytic growth appearing only 

 to be found on those from deeper water. 



SeaJiam Harbour, October 9th., 1857. 



(ffltamtagf. 



THE STUDY OF NATURE; 

 AN ENTOMOLOGICAL PEO'EM EOE 1858. 



BY THE EDITOE. 



Theee are many impulses by which, unknown to ourselves, we become 

 students of Nature. Perhaps the most common is that which springs from 

 an instinctive and earnest love of the good and beautiful in the glorious world 

 around us. It is a morbid and sometimes ill-natured view of the objects of our 

 existence, which endeavours to chill the -warm and enthusiastic feelings with 



VOL. VIII. c 



