NONSUCH 



gassum sanctuary etched upon the Httle crabs even 

 before bn*th. Some of the wrigghng embryos were 

 straw yellow, others orange, others dark olive. The 

 eyes were most conspicuous and invariably dark 

 sepia brown, their relatively great size showing how 

 important they must be to the new-hatched larvae. 

 The newly deposited spawn is always bright orange 

 and when we press back the little circular disk of the 

 crab's abdomen, it looks like a delicately fashioned 

 plate heaped high with a pile of diminutive cum- 

 quats. Each egg is only a fiftieth of an inch in 

 diameter, but in the exquisite machinery of develop- 

 ment it is perfection, while in value to the coming 

 generation of Wanderer Crabs its diameter is that 

 of the Earth itself. 



I have never seen the first or zoea or " life " stage, 

 but it is doubtless the usual giant-headed, spiny, 

 long-tailed changeling which is the childhood of 

 most crabs. This is the most critical time in all the 

 growth of the Wanderer, for zoea is a swimming 

 animal, and as man in his extreme youth is a quadru- 

 ped and creeps about the floor on hands and knees, 

 so crabs when they leave the egg revert to swimming 

 ancestors. In a single branch of gulf weed as large 

 as a man's head I have found six crabs with eggs, 

 and as the average number of eggs is about six hun- 

 dred, there would in time be thirty-six hundred 

 zoeas swimming busily about. In spite of spines 

 these bits of natatory life are toothsome morsels for 

 any enemy of size, and it is probably a fortunate 

 brood which numbers a half dozen survivors at the 



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