CRABS. 23 



tides are far beneath the waves, and now is the harvest 

 of the adventurous crab-hunter, who, hook in hand, 

 climbs and scrambles among the slippery stones and 

 weed-covered crags, to where narrow cleft and dark 

 recess give promise of Crab's lurking-places, when with 

 a cautious probing motion, the curved instrument is 

 thrust onward along the hidden galleries beneath the 

 rock, until the practised hand detects the hoped-for im- 

 pediment, when with one sudden, dexterous, backward 

 stroke of his weapon he withdraws the retiring Cancer 

 from his snug retreat, and exposes him to the garish 

 light of day. Give him but one instant for reflection, 

 and up goes his back against the roof of his hole_, when, 

 except by literally pulling him in pieces, extraction 

 is a sheer impossibility ; and it is in consequence of this 

 exceedingly unaccommodating habit of his, that would- 

 be crab-catchers have been at times crab caught, and 

 their incautious groping hands held fast as though in 

 the vice of some sea Yulcan, until the flowing tide has 

 put an end to both their struggles and sufferings. The 

 tenacity of a crab's grip is perfectly extraordinary and 

 all but incredible. A hold once taken is seldom let go, 

 and the battles which frequently take place among 

 these pugnacious gentry give ample scope for the exer- 

 cise of their tremendous nippers ; and nature has most 

 wisely provided them with the power of throwing ofi" 

 such limbs as may be either seized by the enemy or 



