COMMON OBJECTS OP THE SHORE. 287 



coast, where it is as common as on our native 

 shore. If any attempt is made to touch it, it 

 runs along in a most excited state, and hastens to 

 bury itself in the sand. If seized before it can 

 make its escape, it fights most desperately, striving 

 with all its might to seize and pinch the fingers, 

 and moving its claws in most defiant attitudes, 

 while, when no resource is left it, it will leave its 

 claws behind, and get away by means of its smaller 

 limbs. Nor does the animal appear to suffer from 

 its loss, for though it can move but slowly, there 

 is no indication of pain. Could we again see this 

 maimed crab, we should probably find, that after a 

 while it had renewed its limbs ; for in common 

 with other crustaceous animals, it has the power 

 of reproducing them from the remaining portion 

 of the old ones. We often see a lobster brought 

 to table with one limb longer than the other ; a 

 condition which was probably caused by its having 

 in some encounter with an enemy, dropped it in 

 its grasp, while the one more recently produced 

 had not attained its full size at the time when the 

 lobster was captured. 



This crab is a common article of food in towns 

 contiguous to the sea, and is sold in the streets 

 both of London and Paris ; but it is inferior in 

 size and flavour to the larger species found very 

 generally around our coasts, and usually abounding 

 on such as are rocky, often to be seen after the 

 tide has withdrawn from the rocks, hiding itself 

 there among the sea-weeds. The flesh of this 

 crab ( Cancer Pagurus) is esteemed a great delicacy. 

 The French call it le crabe poupart, or le tourteau. 

 The large kinds keep out on the rocks in deeper 

 water, where they are caught by men who go out 



