A NATURALIST. 87 



intercept them, and prevent their escaping into the 

 sea. Many an hour of cautious and solicitous 

 endeavour to steal upon them unobserved, has been 

 frustrated by their long-sighted watchfulness; and 

 several times, when, by extreme care and cunning 

 approaches, I have actually succeeded in getting 

 between a fine specimen and the sea, and had full 

 hope of driving him farther inland, have all my 

 anticipations been ruined by the wonderful swift- 

 ness of their flight, or the surprising facility with 

 which they would dart off in the very opposite 

 direction, at the very moment I felt almost sure 

 of my prize. One day, in particular, I saw on a 

 flat rock, which afforded a fine sunning place, 

 the most beautiful crab I had ever beheld. It 

 was of the largest size, and would have covered a 

 large dinner-plate, most beautifully coloured with 

 bright crimson below, and a variety of tints of 

 blue, purple, and green above : it was just such 

 a specimen as could not fail to excite all the soli- 

 citude of a collector to obtain. But it was not 

 in the least deficient in the art of self-preservation : 

 my most careful manoeuvres proved ineffectual, and 

 all my efforts only enabled me to see enough of it 

 to augment my regrets to a high degree. Subse- 

 quently, I saw a similar individual in the collec- 

 tion of a resident: this had been killed against 

 the rocks during a violent hurricane, with very 

 slight injury to its shell. I offered high rewards 

 to the black people if they would bring me such 

 a one, but the most expert among them seemed 



