84 CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. 



Tempest tlie ocean : tliere leviathan, 

 Hugest of living creatures, on the deep, 

 Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims, 

 And seems a mo^vdng land ; and at his gills 

 Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea." 



Milton. 



The water passes freely through, but the poor little 

 opossiims, by the peck, are left beliind, to help in 

 building up the material by the aid of which the god- 

 dess of fashion contrives to maintain such an exceed- 

 ingly good figure. But if the whale devours his legions 

 of opossums, he has not, big as he is, matters all his own 

 way. There is a little crustacean {Cyamus ceti) so much 

 attached to him, that like the old man of tlie sea, who, 

 when once established on Sinbad's back could not by 

 ordinary means be induced to come off again, appears 

 quite content with matters as they are, and nibbles 

 away at the skin of his gigantic steed, just as his 

 appetite may requii^e. Thus enjoying all the advan- 

 tages of noble companj^, free travelling, and a permanent 

 residence on his own dining-table. 



Unlike tlie ordinary shrimps w^ho carry their eggs 

 about with them but for a time, the opossums carry 

 theirs until the young are sufficiently developed to 

 shift lor themselves, when a pecuHar valve-like, 

 trap-door arrangement is caused to open, and the 

 young shrimp fry, start in the world of waters, and 

 seek for themselves their own maintenance. Arctic 



