196 CRUSTACEANS. 



but many of moderate dimesions lurk in the clefts of the rocks, and con- 

 ceal themselves under large stones nearer the shore. 



Perhaps it is chiefly owing to the inert disposition of the creature, 

 that its shell appears so often totally invested by marine algae, fuci, 

 zoophytes, and some testacea. All these crowded together in profuse 

 combination, completely disguise its real form. Of two specimens, like 

 those represented, the back of one was wholly invested by a coating 

 of smooth compact sponge, the sixteenth of an inch thick ; and that of 

 the other by at least forty serpulae. 



Full-grown, clean, fine specimens of the Hyas araneus are not 

 common. 



PLATE XLVII. 



FIG. 1 . (Cancer (hyas) araneus, male. 

 2. Apron. 



PLATE XLVIII. 



FIG. 1. Cancer (hyas) araneus, female. Apron, a. 

 2. Cluster of roe. 



D. 3. CANCER (HYAS) COARCTATUS. Plate XLIX. 



The nature of some creatures appears to us so extraordinary, and 

 so different from what we might conjecture it should be, that no impro- 

 bable surmise might sanction credulity in their having been transferred 

 from the scene of their original creation, to a milder or a more rigid 

 climate now occupied by them. 



The languor and inactivity of certain genera in this tribe of ani- 

 mals is most extraordinary. They seem as if born to live in torpor. 

 Scarcely ever in sensible motion, if accidentally roused by some artifi- 

 cial stimulus, it is only to relapse into more profound repose, for cer- 

 tainly this is their greatest enjoyment, their strongest propensity, perhaps 

 the immediate result of atmospherical influence. Their state now, is 

 probably an effect approximating torpidity. But what can be so power- 

 ful and irresistible as torpidity? It is the most overwhelming of all re- 

 pose, that which neither resolution nor inclination can impair ; that 

 which leads immediately from life to death without apparent suffering. 



