A NATURALIST. 75 



placement of the sand are too slight to be appreciated, 

 though it is most probably owing to a gradual lateral 

 motion of the body by which the sand is displaced in the 

 centre beneath, and thus gradually forced up at the sides 

 until it falls over and covers the crab. Examine him 

 within twelve hours, and you will find the skin becoming 

 about as hard as fine writing paper, producing a similar 

 crackling if compressed ; twelve hours later the shell is 

 sufficiently stiffened to require some slight force to bend 

 it, and the crab is said to be in buckram, as in the first 

 stage it was in paper. It is still helpless, and offers no 

 resistance; but at the end of thirty-six hours, it shows 

 that its natural instincts are In action, and by the time 

 forty-eight hours have elapsed, the crab is restored to the 

 exercise of all his functions. I have stated the above as 

 the periods in which the stages of the moult are accom- 

 plished, but I have often observed that the rapidity of this 

 process is very much dependent upon the temperature, 

 and especially upon sunshine. A cold, cloudy, raw, and 

 disagreeable spell happening at this period, though by no 

 means common, will retard the operation considerably, 

 protracting the period of helplessness. This is the har- 

 vest season of the white fisherman and of the poor slave. 

 The laziest of the former are now in full activity, wading 

 along the shore from morning till night, dragging a small 

 boat after them, and holding in the other hand a forked 

 stick with which they raise the crabs from the sand. The 

 period during which the crabs remain in the paper state 



