mon name, without the aid of their spider-like 

 appendages. Some specimens must have been more 

 than thirteen inches overall. 



It was while noting such familiar, but ever ab- 

 sorbing, details of crustacean life that my eye was 

 caught by a new-comer; a spider-crab of an en- 

 tirely different kind strode gravely into the scene. 

 My heart gave a perceptible jump; immediately I 

 recognized it as a female Hyas coarctatus, and a 

 representative of a genus famous for containing 

 the most intelligent of all crabs, if not the very 

 smartest of all invertebrates; it was a creature I 

 had long been looking for, but had been unable to 

 obtain easily, owing to its infrequent appearance 

 in this precise locality of the sea. 



In truth, my interest in Hyas had antedated 

 even my first-hand acquaintance with the crab folk 

 of the sea; long ago, upon reading of its remark- 

 able traits, I had resolved that one day the study of 

 certain of its singularities should be mine. Here 

 was the chance. At last my laboratory was to con- 

 tain a royal guest, the Queen of Crustacealand, a 

 real aristocrat. And by this I mean a being of intel- 

 lect; for I hold that no title of nobility exists but 

 that proceeding from a superior mind. I made 



[212] 



