422 FRANCIS TREVELYAN AUCKLAND. 



that till lately they were thought some strange ani- 

 malcula ; goggle eyes, a hawk's beak, a scorpion's 

 tail, a rhinoceros's horn, adorn a body fringed with 

 legs, yet scarcely bigger than a grain of sand. 



"Several strange shapes are assumed in turn 

 ere the young crab attains the parent form. For 

 the parents of so numerous a family it is well that 

 nature has provided the young crabs with a strong 

 suit of clothes, which does not wear out ; but it is 

 quickly outgrown. The young crabs shed from time 

 to time the horny case, even to the finger-nails and 

 eyelids ; and mother Nature straightway provides, 

 underneath, a new, soft, leathery suit, which quickly 

 hardens into shell. Another marvel is, that the 

 growth is, as it were, by leaps and bounds ; each 

 time it bursts its case the young crab swells sud- 

 denly to twice the size of the discarded shell. 



" In crab youth several new suits are annually 

 required. In maturer life the lady crab, it seems, 

 is content with one new dress each year ; yet is 

 not the romance of life over. In the time of her 

 soft-shelled weakness and seclusion, a male crab in 

 full armor constantly attends her, guards her from 

 danger, and solaces her in her retirement. An old 

 crab's shell, covered sometimes with barnacles, or 

 with oysters of several years' growth, shows that 

 the patriarch has outlived the change of fashions 

 which occupied his youth." 



The report on herring showed that eight hun- 

 dred million fish are taken yearly in Scotland, by 

 more than seven thousand boats. 



