100 APRIL. 



hinged that they can play over each other, or be spread 

 out in shape of a fan, and each plate beset on its edges 

 with a most delicate fringe of stiff bristles. To see its 

 use, you have only to approach the animal He instantly 

 darts away with force ; all the while, however, keeping 

 his face to the foe, as becomes a soldier so armed. Now 

 this retrocessive power is his great cheval de bataille. 

 When gently exploring, he crawls among the weeds on 

 the tips of his long feet ; when swimming at ease, he 

 glides gracefully along by the rapid paddling of the false 

 feet, of which he carries five pairs beneath his abdomen. 

 But when alarmed, he forcibly throws forward this plated 

 tail, expanded to the utmost, bending the last joints of 

 the body from the hump on his back, and thus strikes 

 a powerful forward blow on the water, by the impact of 

 which the whole prawn is jerked backward to a distance 

 of several inches. 



But he is gone ; and it were useless to look for him 

 any more in this wilderness of sea- weeds, and amid the 

 cavernous recesses of those rocky ledges, where he en- 

 joys ample means of retreat and concealment. For, 

 even if you did catch a momentary glimpse of him again, 

 it would be only as he darts from one shelter to another, 

 and he would presently be far out of your reach in the 

 obscurity of some inexplorable hole. 



Let us turn to the beach and follow the water's edge. 



