Red Sea Shells. 15 



what I had scarcely noticed before, that instead of each shell con- 

 taining its own proper mollusc, almost all had been usurped by the 

 hermit crab. This odd little creature, unlike most of his genus, 

 has no tail armour. His head and chest are well guarded with 

 visor and cuirass ; but his conclusion, clothed as it is merely by a 

 soft sliin, affords a most appetizing morsel to his voracious com- 

 patriots. Unlike most people he is perfectly aware of his own 

 deficiency, and pride or prudence leads him to look out for a shell 

 that will suit his measure. If he cannot find any tenement to let, 

 and he is very fastidious as to style and colour, he falls upon 

 some live mollusc, and literally eats him out of house and home. 

 Once master of the shell he curls himself into it backwards, and 

 drawing the larger of his two claws, for they are of very unequal 

 size, tightly over the entrance, shuts himself in as with a living 

 door. Here he remains like a hermit in his cell, or a soldier in 

 his sentry box, for he is known by both names, the French calling 

 him in their playful love of personification " Bernard Thermite." 

 As the little anchorite grows in size, and finds himself uncomfort- 

 able, he will actually dissolve the internal spiral column of the 

 shell by some chemical agency of which he is possessed ; but more 

 often he will look out for another, never wandering far from his 

 old shell, that it may be at hand in case of danger. Sometimes 

 he will fidget into and out of a great number before he suits the 

 increased importance of his tail. His life is a strange mixture of 

 timidity and combativeness. Anything will serve him as a cause 

 for quarrel with his own kind ; and, as is the case with most of (he 

 crustaceans, the victor always eats his foe with perfect satisfaction, 

 even though the victory may have cost him two or three of his own 

 claws. And yet so abject is his terror when his tail is exposed, 

 that he prefers to be torn in half rather than relax the hold of his 

 tail-pincers, which are indeed the last pair of his legs modified for 

 the purpose of adhering to his cell. Patience is the only way to 

 unhermit him, and as I rode my camel beside the Gulf of Akaba, 

 1 evicted him tail and all from many of these shells, holding them 

 in my fingers till he thought all was safe, and, incautiously raising 

 his claw, gave me the handle for a long steady pull. There is a 

 great deal more that is interesting and amusing about " Bernard 

 Thermite." You will find him among the whelks and periwinkles 

 of any fishwoman's stall, though he will scarcely be as elegant as 

 my friends, or so choice in the architecture of his dwelling. 



But to return to my bedroom, which by this time is alive and 

 running. I was much too tired that night to perform the herculean 

 task of ejecting the crabs from some thousandsof shells, so 1 procured 

 from M. Schembri a cask half full of sawdust, once the receptacle 



