CAKCINUS. 41 



as an oar, with that peculiar action which is known to boat- 

 men as sculling. . . . " None of our native Crabs are ' at 

 the top of the tree' in the swimming profession. Their 

 efforts, even those of the best of them, are awkward bun- 

 glings, when compared with the freedom and fleetness of 

 those I have seen in the Caribbean Sea, and among the gulf- 

 weed in the tropical Atlantic, which shoot through the 

 water almost like a fish, with the feet on the side that hap- 

 pens to be the front all tucked close up, and those on the 

 opposite side stretched away behind, so as to ' hold no 

 water/ as a seaman would say, and thus offer no impedi- 

 ment to the way. Our species are obliged to keep their 

 pair of sculls continually working wdiile they swim ; a series 

 of laborious efforts just sufficient to counteract the force of 

 gravity ; and the seesaw motion of the bent and flattened 

 joints of the oar-feet is so much like that of a fiddler's 

 elbow, as to have given rise to a very widely-adopted appel- 

 lation of these Crabs, among our marine populace."* 



Gen. 12. CARClNUS,t Leach. 



Carapace nearly as long as wide, the front projecting; 



* Gosse, Aquarium, p. 195. 



t KapKivos, a Crab. Mr. Daua places the geuera Carcinus, Portumnus, and 



