1899] Small — Life Beneath the Waters. 193 



These waters are also the paradise of the sea urchin {^Echinus) 

 and the great black " Sea Cucumber." {Holothuria.) 



Crabs are abundant and of several kinds, but attain no size. I 

 failed to find trace of Lobsters or Sea Crawfish. Along the 

 shores, burrowing in the sand, and on the margins of fields near 

 the shore there is a crab, that seems amphibious. It is a nuisance 

 to the planter, as it burrows much like the mole. 



In instructions to the " Governor of the Bermuda planta- 

 tions," dated 1665, sharks were claimed and to be considered a 

 royalty. Although an occasional shark is caught they are no 

 longer numerous inshore, preferring to have their habitat along 

 the outer boundary reefs. 



An occasional whale is to be seen off the coast, but is now 

 a rare visitant. Formerly whales were abundant and one of the 

 earliest industries of Bermuda was the whale fishery. In a work 

 published in London in 1613 by one Sylvanus Jourdan, being an 

 account of the " Bermudas now called Sommer's Islands," he 

 says, " there are plenty of whales which come so usually and 

 ordinarily to the shore that we heard them oftentimes in the 

 night abed and I have seen many of them near the shore in the 

 daytime." Only two or three years ago a large whale was 

 captured off the south shore, and was an object of interest for 

 days, the " whale beef" being in great demand. The old trj-ing 

 out furnace and melting house, rudely constructed on a height 

 of land adjoining one of the bays in Warwick parish is still in 

 existence, and could be made use of ag^in if required. In the 

 early instructions to the Governor of the colony, allusion is 

 made to the revenue to be derived from the whale fishery, and 

 from the collection of Ambergris and Spermaceti, but what 

 revenues were ever obtained therefrom do not appear in subse- 

 quent records. In a sequel to Jourdan's first report, he says 

 " there are whales in great store from February until June. * * 

 ***** The Octopus finds a safe retreat in the crevices 

 of the coral, and attains a large size. I saw a sj5ecimen whose 

 tentacles were nearly three feet in length, washed up in a storm, 



