MYSTERIOUS MIGRATION 231 



the land into a miniature sea, these crabs knew in some unex- 

 plainable way that their hour had come. In the countless thou- 

 sands they deserted their underground houses and ventured 

 forth into the open air. A sudden urge had taken hold of them, 

 all at once, an urge that with magnetic power turned them all 

 in one direction. 



The time had come to return to the sea. 



Many hours had passed, a full year had gone since they 

 left their mother ocean and it was time to return. But not as 

 they came. The beaches and bush trails had swarmed with 

 them that day a year gone, so thick that one could scarcely walk 

 without crushing their bodies. They were very tiny then, 

 barely an inch in length, and the larger birds had held joyous 

 revel and had stuffed themselves with young crabs until they 

 could hardly fly. They had seemingly come out of nowhere; 

 for a few days they had swarmed and then little by little they 

 disappeared into the jungle, into their lonely retreats in the 

 interior. Creeping over boulders and stones, threading between 

 the lignum vitae, struggling under the tangled masses of the 

 prickly pear, they had made their way, meeting death and dis- 

 aster in a thousand forms, growing the while— some of them— 

 until the inland country had swallowed them up. 



In the moonlight I cornered one of the advancing crabs, a 

 purple one with yellow spots, and picked it up. Beneath its 

 body was a great purplish mass tucked under the shelter of the 

 apron. The crab was female and the purple mass was her eggs. 

 She struggled to get free, bit at me with her claws. I dropped 

 her to the sand and tried to make her go back into the bushes. 

 But an instinct stronger than fear possessed her that night. 

 Stepping daintily sidewise, moving each of her legs in con- 

 secutive precision, she menaced me with her claws and ran 

 to pass between my feet. I let her go and she dashed the re- 

 maining distance to the surf and was swallowed in the bubbles. 



