74 EAMBLESOF 



No. VI. 



AFTER the sun-fish, as regular annual visitants of 

 the small rivers and creeks containing salt or brack- 

 ish water, came the crabs, in vast abundance, though 

 for a very different purpose. These singularly-con- 

 structed and interesting beings furnished me with 

 another excellent subject for observation; and, during 

 the period of their visitation, my skiff was in daily 

 requisition. Floating along with an almost imper- 

 ceptible motion, a person looking from the shore 

 might have supposed her entirely adrift; for, as I 

 was stretched at full length across the seats, in order 

 to bring my sight as close to the water as possible 

 without inconvenience, no one would have observed 

 my presence from a little distance. The crabs belong 

 to a very extensive tribe of beings which carry their 

 skeletons on the outside of their bodies, instead of 

 within; and, of necessity, the fleshy, muscular, or 

 moving power of the body is placed in a situation 

 the reverse of what occurs in animals of a higher 

 order, which have internal skeletons or solid frames 

 to their systems. This peculiarity of the crustaceous 

 animals, and various other beings, is attended with 

 one apparent inconvenience when they have grown 

 large enough to fill their shell or skeleton completely, 

 they cannot grow farther, because the skeleton, being 



