IXTRODUCTION. \?^ 



The crustaceans, to whose homes Ave i^ropose bending 

 our steps, have some strange and note- worthy pecu- 

 liarities of form, structure, and habits. Instead of, 

 like ordinary creatures, having skeletons in them, on 

 which their tissues are disposed (much as fashionable 

 milliners arrange the captivating raiment of the fair), 

 they, in an apparently perverse and independent spirit, 

 adoj^t a custom of their ov/n, which to us would, to 

 say the very least of it, prove most uncomfortable and 

 inconvenient, and wear their skeletons outside instead 

 of in ; and although fashions do not (so far as our 

 experience has gone) change in the realms of King 

 Xeptune, and no starthng announcement meets the 

 eager eye of Mrs. Crab, or the charming Misses Lobster, 

 that a sweet new thing in skeletons has just arrived 

 at the emporium of Sponge, Limpet, and Co. Limited, 



