A NATURALIST. 83 



and interesting, and the reader may not consider the 

 particulars thus far given as being particularly so. 

 Perhaps, when he takes them altogether, he will 

 agree that they have as much that is curious about 

 their construction as almost any animal we have 

 mentioned, and in the interesting details we have 

 as yet made but a single step. 



The circumstance of the external skeleton has 

 been mentioned; but who would expect an animal 

 as low in the scale as a crab, to be furnished with 

 ten or twelve pair of jaws to its mouth? Yet such 

 is the fact; and all these variously-constructed pieces 

 are provided with appropriate muscles, and move in 

 a manner which can scarcely be explained, though 

 it may be very readily comprehended when once 

 observed in living nature. But, after all the com- 

 plexity of the jaws, where would an inexperienced 

 person look for their teeth ? surely not in the 

 stomach ? nevertheless, such is their situation ; 

 and these are not mere appendages, that are called 

 teeth by courtesy, but stout, regular grinding teeth, 

 with a light brown surface. They are not only 

 within the stomach, but fixed to a cartilage nearest 

 to its lower extremity, so that the food, unlike 

 that of other creatures, is submitted to the action 

 of the teeth as it is passing from the stomach, 

 instead of being chewed before it is swallowed. 

 In some species the teeth are five in number; but 

 throughout this class of animals the same general 

 principle of construction may be observed. Crabs 

 and their kindred have no brain, because they are 



