452 INSECTS. 



a house, they will attempt to scale the walls to keep the unbroken 

 tenor of their way. J5ut though this is the general order of their 

 route, they, upon other occasions, are obliged to conform to the 

 face of the country; and if it is intersected with rivers, they are 

 then seen to wind along the course of the stream. They are ofte"a 

 obliged to halt for want of rain, and go into the most convenient 

 encampment till the weather changes. The main body of the army 

 is composed of females, which never leave the mountains till the 

 rain is set in for some time. The night is their chief time of pro- 

 ceeding ; but if it rains by day, they do not fail to profit by the 

 occasion ; and they continue to move forward in their slow uniform 

 manner. When the sun shines, and is hot, upon the surface of 

 the ground, they make a universal halt, and wait till the cool of 

 the evening. When they are terrified, they march back in a con- 

 fused disorderly manner, holding up their nippers, with which they 

 sometimes tear-off a piece of the skin, and then leave the weapon 

 where they inflicted the wound. They even try to intimidate their 

 enemies ; for they often clatter their nippers together^ as if to 

 threaten those that disturb them. But though they thus strive to 

 be formidable to man, they are much more so to each other;- for 

 they are possessed of one most unsocial property, which is, that 

 if any of them by accident be maimed, in such a manner as to be 

 incapable of proceeding, the rest fall upon and devour it on the 

 spot, and then pursue their journey. When, after a fatiguing 

 march, and escaping a thousand dangers, (for they are sometimes 

 three months in getting to the shore,) they have arrived at the 

 destined port, they prepare to cast their spawn, which shaking off 

 into the water, they leave accident to bring it to maturity. At this 

 time, shoals of hungry fish are at the shore in expectation of this 

 annual supply; the sea to a great distance seems black with them; 

 and about two-thirds of the crab's eggs are immediately devoured 

 by these rapacious invaders. The eggs that escape are hatched 

 under the sand ; and, soon after, millions at a time of these little 

 crabs are seen quitting the shore, and slowly travelling up to the 

 mountains. This animal, when possessed of its retreats in the 

 mountains, is impregnable : for, only subsisting on vegetables, it 

 seldom ventures out : and its habitation being in the most inacces- 

 sible places, it remains for a great part of the season in perfect 

 security. It is only when impelled by the desire of bringing forth 



