CATCHING A CRAB. 279 



is hardly organic, and which is even more simple and 

 less like a living thing than the common sea-weed ; 

 and yet, when it is covered with water, one can see it 

 spreading out its numerous tentacula like the petals 

 of a dull purplish flower, closing them with unerring 

 certainty upon any little shell-fish that the motion of the 

 water brings within their reach, and very soon after 

 ejecting the shell completely cleared of its contents. 

 And not only that, but it can choose its residence, 

 detach itself from one part of the rock and adhere to 

 another, although the precise way in which its migration 

 is accomplished be not known. 



Even those natives of the sea that are defended by 

 crusts, and seize their prey by claws and pincers, like 

 the lobster and the crab, have the same fecundity and 

 the same voracity as the fishes properly so called. As 

 many as twelve or thirteen thousand eggs have been 

 found upon a single lobster, and the number in some 

 of the crabs is probably much greater. Those two 

 species answer some of the purposes of scavengers of 

 the deep, -devouring substances in a state of putridity 

 and decay, though they are very apt to seize any thing 

 that comes within their reach. We have seen rather 

 a small crab marching rapidly with a piece of offal, 

 several times its own size, while smaller ones were at 

 the other extremity holding on, and attempting to 

 divide the prize. Nay, we remember an instance in 

 which, but for timely assistance, the corporation of 

 a royal borough would have been deprived of its head 

 through the retentive clutching of a crab. 



The borough alluded to, is situated on a rocky part 

 of the coast, where shell-fish are so very abundant that 

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