62 CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. 



veritable specimen ■would serve to convince any one 

 who had jSrst seen a sketch of this Japanese notability, 

 that the whole conception was not the creation of a 

 distempered dream. Macroclieira-Tcoempferi^ of which 

 two remarkably fine specimens are to be seen in the 

 British Museum, are just the kind of Crabs a timid 

 young lady, or nervous young gentleman, would strongly 

 object to meet " hy the sad sea wave^^ or elsewhere. 

 Their legs are so long, that running away from them 

 would be utterly useless, — giving them, when standing, 

 the height of an ordinary camp-stool, whilst the 

 nipper claws appear constructed precisely on the same 

 principle as are the arms of the magic policeman of a 

 pantomime, which stretch easily from the level of the 

 street to the housetop, where that prince of evil-doers, 

 the clown, has vainly sought sanctuary. Then the 

 coasts of Tasmania and other portions of Australasia 

 are inhabited by Crabs, who make up in bulk and 

 enormous power, the little they may fall short of their 

 Japanese cousins in length of limb. The pincers of 

 some of these are large enough to embrace the thigh of 

 a man easily, and we apprehend that escape from that 

 bugbear of apple-stealing rustics, the village man-trap, 

 would be a matter of perfect simplicity, and a mere 

 practical joke, to getting out of the grip of one of the 

 gigantic crustaceans of the antipodes. As some of these 

 are remarkable for their formidable appearance and 



