nibalism would seem almost to be not the excep- 

 tion, but rather the rule. And nowhere else does 

 the remorseless aspect of Nature present itself 

 more plainly. Judged from our human viewpoint, 

 cruelty is its commonest feature. Few of the higher 

 creatures of the land there are, that do not kill 

 outright or render unconscious the prey which they 

 are about to devour. Even the predatory insects 

 are usually equipped with some benumbing or par- 

 alyzing device wherewith their victims are brought 

 to an easy or painless death. Such methods are 

 restricted to only a few that live in the sea. A crab 

 will seize its smaller neighbor — not seldom its 

 own species — and with utter nonchalance (if such 

 psychic attribute may be applied to a crab) de- 

 liberately pluck off the legs and other appendages 

 and devour the other piecemeal. Snails bore into 

 barnacles and other immobile forms and literally 

 hack the helpless prisoners into fragments. Aside 

 from the jellyfish and its kindred, which at least 

 partially paralyze their prey, and their more agile 

 fellow-citizens, the backboned fishes and the ceph- 

 alopods, which destroy at once or engulf their 

 victims whole, not many killers, indeed, are given 

 to even the rudest sort of mercy. 



[24] 



