82 LUNDY ISLAND. 



excited ; the bases of the antennae are studded, as is 

 indeed the whole surface of the animal, with prickles ; 

 and these it rubs with force against the sides of the 

 shelly horn that projects from the forehead, by which 

 a singular grating noise is made, accompanied with a 

 very perceptible vibration. Our friend the captain, 

 who has the misfortune to be deaf, protested that he 

 could hear the sound distinctly whenever he touched 

 the animal with his hand ; but I am not sure whether 

 this was not a confusion of senses ; a mistaking of the 

 vibration of which his nerves of touch were cognizant, 

 for such as would have been appreciable by those of 

 hearing. 



The crabs, on the other hand, both the common 

 kind and the spider, were sluggish, inert, and helpless, 

 yet somewhat awkward to take hold of, and to pull out 

 of the entrance, on account of their breadth. The 

 spiders, too. like the cray-fish, are bristled over with 

 stout, sharp-pointed spines. The contrast between 

 the agile power of the lobster and the torpidity of the 

 crab, when taken from their proper element, is very 

 striking. The former, as I have said, presents his 

 threatening claws to his adversary, like a warrior 

 skilled in the use of his weapons and prepared to use 

 them ; leaping and springing about, at the same time, 

 with a sort of dashing recklessness, as hoping to find 

 some possibility of escape, even from the worst circum- 

 stances. The crab seems paralysed as soon as he is 

 taken out of the water. Though furnished with claws 

 of a stony hardness, apparently superior in the power 



