68 CRAB; SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. 



storm-tossed marinerSj by whom he was at once intro- 

 duced to the chief, the man of demonstration, who 

 cruslied in the egg's end to make it stand upright. 

 "A crab!" said he; "a good and fair harbinger of 

 land, which, with God's help, we shall soon discover." 

 And so they did, for the Crab's tale came true, and the 

 West India Islands were almost immediately fallen in 

 with, and duly investigated. 



P, minutus is a roving sailor by nature, and is 

 carried on his long sea-voyages by the masses of weed 

 ever carried onward by the warm and genial gulf-stream, 

 and there is little doubt that members of the family to 

 which he belongs, now naturalized on our own coasts, 

 first travelled hither amongst the meshes of their 

 ocean raft, which knew no return. Such specimens as 

 have been procured on the coasts of England, are not 

 as large or brilliant in their colour, as those captured in 

 more genial climes. 



The Floating Crabs, as met with in true gulf streams, 

 are extremely pretty little creatures, measuring about 

 eight-tenths of an inch in length. They are clouded 

 and shaded with rich warm brown, yellow, and buff, 

 and well deserve the consideration of the lover of 

 natural history. 



The almost mnumerable channels stretching between 

 the coral reefs, lagunes, and palm-clad islands of the 

 Southern Seas are inhabited by legions of Crabs of next 



