Life Beneath the Waves. 53 



being able to " paddle their own canoes" 

 in such a truly natural manner, does not 

 debar them from pedestrian movements, 

 for swimming crabs can crawl, and scramble 

 over rocks and stones, as easily and rapidly 

 as they can swim above them. A beautiful 

 member of this family is the Velvet-crab, 

 so called by reason of its body and limbs 

 being thickly covered with hair, as fine as 

 silk and as soft as velvet ; its colours are 

 golden brown, and blue, and it is a most 

 attractive object in an aquarium. Its dis- 

 position, however, is not as worthy of ad- 

 miration as its personal beauty, for the 

 Velvet-crab is particularly fierce and 

 quarrelsome, and its cannibalistic propen- 

 sities are decidedly objectionable in tanks 

 of small dimensions. 



Before leaving the subject of crabs, I 

 must touch upon one other kind, for it is a 



