THEIR JOURNEY TO CAST THEIR SPAWN. 149 



leave the mountains till the rainy season is begun. 

 They march in regular order^ being formed into co- 

 lumns fifty paces broad and three miles long^ and so 

 close that they almost cover the ground. In a few- 

 days this company is followed by a parcel of stragglers, 

 male and female, that are not so strong as those which 

 have advanced before them. They travel chiefly in 

 the night ; but if a shower falls in the day, they do 

 not fail to take advantage of it. If they are alarmed, 

 they turn back in a confused, disorderly manner, hold- 

 ing up their nippers and clattering them together, as 

 a sort of threat to their enemies. When any one of 

 them happens to be wounded or maimed, so that he 

 cannot proceed, they devour him without mercy, as if 

 determined to get rid of all impediments, and then 

 pursue their march. 



As soon as their journey, which lasts several weeks, 

 is concluded by reaching the shore, they prepare to 

 cast their spawn, by suffering the waves to wash over 

 their bodies ; which is supposed to assist the growth of 

 the eggs, for they soon afterwards appear under the 

 barbs of the tail in a bunch as large as a hen's egg. 

 They now seek the shore for the last time, and de- 

 posit their spawn in the water, leaving it to the 

 chance of accidents to preserve or destroy them. At 

 this season, when it is said that the waters are black- 

 ened by the crabs' spawn, shoals of hungry fish ap- 



