34 BLACK RIVER. 



under surface of projecting ledges, which made them 

 more hard to he got at. 



These Chitons I prepared in the following manner : 

 — Having hrought them on hoard, 1 threw them into 

 a tub of cold fresh water to kill them. When dead, 

 which was known by the absence of muscular rigidity, 

 the soft fleshy parts were cut out, leaving only the 

 shelly plates and the leathery margin. Some strips 

 of board, just wide enough to receive the specimens, 

 having been provided, I placed each Chiton length- 

 wise, exactly in the position it had assumed when 

 alive on the rock, and with a thread, passed several 

 times round it and the board, bound it firmly down. 

 It thus dried in a natural form, instead of the con- 

 dition in which we sometimes see these interesting 

 shells in cabinets, coiled up like a millepede, from 

 which, when once dried, it is difficult to relax them 

 permanently. 



A day or two afterwards, I obtained from the 

 rocks near Black River Cldton piceus in abundance, 

 a much larger and finer species than any of the 

 former. 



THE PAINTED SWIFT-FOOT. 



Dec. \lth. — About the rocks in the vicinity 

 of Black River, I noticed many specimens of this 

 beautiful Crab {Grapsus tetmicrustatus). Its form is 

 remarkably flat, as are also the legs, and particularly 

 the thighs, which pack one on the other in a very 

 curious manner : the hue is a chaste warm grey, 

 marked with transverse zigzag black lines, somewhat 

 like writing. It is difficult to capture, for it is very 



