132 REMINISCENCES OF 



Gulf of Mexico and the southern states, and collected in 

 the eddies. Each little tuft, if carefully taken, and placed 

 in a tumbler or basin of salt water, will display a number 

 of beautiful shrimps, spotted, chequered, or striped with 

 every shade of colouring ; a variety of minute crabs, little 

 shells, and not unfrequently fish, in comparison with 

 which the minrioes of our creeks are leviathans. Most of 

 these various tribes which have been carried by the cur- 

 rent from their native shores, would speedily perish in 

 the unfathomable depths of their own element, if deprived 

 for a long time of the support afforded by their little 

 vessel. 



One would suppose that a voyage of three thousand 

 miles, performed in company, and within the narrow 

 confines of a tuft of leaves, would be sufficient to es- 

 tablish a good understanding in the little community; 

 but, alas ! the natural propensities to violence and plunder, 

 which not even the lofty attribute of human reason can 

 control, here rage with unrestrained violence ; no sooner 

 is this mimic world confined within the precincts of the 

 tumbler or the basin, than the whole vessel displays a 

 system of inveterate warfare. In vain do the smaller 

 shrimps dart through the labyrinth of leaves to elude the 

 pursuit of the crabs ; they are speedily torn in pieces, or 

 driven from their shelter to become the prey of some vo- 

 racious fish, which, flying before the persecution of its 

 larger brethren, thus repays the hospitality of those in 

 whose dominions it seeks obscurity and safety. But this 



