86 THE OCEAN. 



learned to do by catching tliem in the holes of the 

 rocks, so adroitly, as to avoid their formidable pincers. 

 One day he had stretched himself on the top of a 

 rock, and thrusting his arm into a crevice below, got 

 hold of a very large Crab ; so large, indeed, that he 

 was unable to get it out in the position in which it 

 had been taken. Shifting his position in order to 

 accommodate the posture of his prey to the size of the 

 aperture, he slipped his hold of the Crab, which im- 

 mediately made reprisals by catching him by the 

 thumb, and squeezing with so much violence, that he 

 roared aloud. But though there be a vulgar opinion, 

 of course an unfounded one, that Lobsters are apt to 

 cast their claws, through fear, at the sound of thunder 

 or of great guns, the thundering and shouting of the 

 corporation man had no such effect upon the Crab. 

 He would gladly have left it to enjoy its hole ; but it 

 would not quit him, but held him as firmly as if he 

 had been in a vice ; and though he rattled it against 

 the rocks with all the power that he could exert, 

 which, pinched as he was by the thumb, was not 

 great, yet he was unable to got out of its clutches. 

 But, ' tide waits for no man,' even though his thumb 

 should be in a Crab's claw ; and so the flood returned, 

 until the greater part of the arm was in water, and 

 the ripple even beginning to mount to the top of the 

 rock, which, as the tides were high at that particulai 

 time, was speedily to be at least a fathom under 

 water . and destruction seemed inevitable. A towns- 

 man, who had been following the same fishery with 

 an iron hook at the end of a stick, fortunately came 

 in sight ; and by introducing that, and detaching tlie 



