ALABAMA. 117 



up some of the gulf-weed and amused himself with 

 examining it : — 



" Many of the stems and berries were covered with a 

 " thin tissue of coral, like a very minute network ; many 

 " small barnacles {Lepas) were about it ; some shrimps 

 " of an olive colour with bright violet spots ; small crabs, 

 " about half an inch wide, yellow, with dark-brown spots 

 " and mottlings, one with the fore-half of the shell white ; 

 " some small univalve shells, and some curious, soft, 

 " leathery things, almost shapeless. I put all the animals 

 " I could collect into water, and watched their motions. 

 " One of the small shrimps swam near a crab, which 

 " instantly seized it with his claw. With this he held it 

 " firmly, while with the other claw he proceeded very 

 ** deliberately to pick off small portions of the shrimp, 

 " beginning at the head, which he put into his mouth. 

 *' He continued to do this, maugre the struggles of the 

 "shrimp, sometimes shifting it from one claw to the 

 " other, until he had finished ; he picked off all the 

 " members of the head, and the legs, before he began to 

 " eat the body, chewing every morsel very slowly, and 

 '' seeming to enjoy it with great gusto ; when only the 

 " tail was left, he examined it carefully, then rejected it, 

 '' throwing it from him with a sudden jerk." 

 Within a week after the sharp frosts already mentioned, 

 the vertical rays of the sun were making the deck almost 

 too hot to touch. But to one who had languished so long 

 in sub- arctic climates, this was a blessed change. On they 

 swept through the meadow-like Gulf Stream, ploughing 

 their noiseless way through the yellow strings of sargasso- 

 weed, or accompanied by splendid creatures unknown to 

 the colder waters of the North. Rudder-fish, with pale 

 spots, would pass in and out beneath the stern ; a shoal of 

 porpoises would come leaping round the bows, in the cool- 



