The Mighty Deep 



same crabs — with branded carapaces — were 

 caught anew by the fishermen ; not near Fal- 

 mouth, but as before, off the Lizard. How they 

 had managed to get there, how they had first 

 found their way to Falmouth Harbour, a distance 

 of four miles, and then for miles more along 

 the coast, are questions more easily put than 

 answered. The word ''instinct" fails to meet 

 the difficulty. 



One thing only is clear, that they preferred 

 the neighbourhood to which they were accus- 

 tomed. 



Very fearless creatures are small crabs, 

 generally ; brave, no doubt, partly because of 

 their numbers. 



In nets and trawls, where animals of many 

 kinds are together for long hours of captivity, 

 the weak are often destroyed by the strong, 

 before they can be drawn up. 



But sometimes the weak combine together, 

 and prove too much for the strong. Notably 

 this was the case, when a dog-fish, brought 

 up from a depth of over fourteen hundred 

 fathoms, was entirely disposed of in twenty 

 hours by crowds of hungry little crustaceans. 



Most of the crabs and lobsters, shrimps and 

 prawns, which live on or near the bottom, send 



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