308 THE TROPICAL OCEAN 



Malays as a point for their arrows. The crabs and lobsters 

 of the tropical waters are not only more numerous than in our 

 colder seas, but they attain a far greater size than those of the 

 temperate regions of the globe. 



The decapod crustaceans (cray-fish) which inhabit our rivers 

 and brooks, are long-tailed like the lobster, but in the torrid 

 zone the river species all belong to the order of the short- 

 tailed crabs, the most perfect and highly developed of the 

 class. Some species even entirely forsake the water and 

 spend their days on shore, not only on the beach, but far 

 inland on the hills. When the season for spawning arrives, 

 vast armies of these land-crabs set out from their moun- 

 tainous abodes, marching in a direct line to the sea-shore, 

 for the purpose of depositing their eggs in the sand. On 

 this expedition nothing is allowed to deter them from their 

 course. With unyielding perseverance they surmount every 

 obstacle, whether it be a house, rock, or other body, never 

 thinking of going round, but scaling and passing over it in 

 a straight line. Having reached the limit of their journey, 

 they deposit their eggs in the sand, and recommence their toil- 

 some march towards their upland retreats. They set out after 

 nightfall and steadily advance, until the dawn warns them to 

 seek concealment in the inequalities of the ground or among 

 any kind of rubbish, where they lie, until the stars again invite 

 them to pursue their course. On their seaward journey they 

 are in full vigour and fine condition, and this is the time when 

 they are caught in great numbers for the table, their flesh being 

 held in high estimation ; but on returning from the coast, they 

 are exhausted, poor, and unfit for use. 



The mollusks are no less profusely scattered over the tropical 

 seas and coasts than the higher organised crustaceans. There we 

 find those mighty cephalopods whose long fleshy processes, as 

 thick as a man's thigh, are able, it is said, to seize the fisherman 

 in his boat and drag him into the sea ; and there is the abode 

 of the tridacna, whose colossal valves, measuring five feet across, 

 attain a weight of five hundred pounds, and serve both as re- 

 ceptacles for holy water in Catholic churches and to collect the 

 rain in the South Sea Islands. 



The rarest and most beautiful of shells, the royal spondylus, 

 the carinaria vitrea, the scalaria pretiosa, the cypraca aurora, 



