BELMONT BEACH. 51 



time it is seen to be pierced with innumerable little 

 holes; and hundreds of a tiny Calling-crab (Gelasi- 

 mus vocans) are running over its surface, the males 

 of which hold up their enormous claw in front, as if 

 in defiance. At the approach of an intruder, every 

 one hastens into his burrow, and in a moment the 

 muddy bank, that was alive with the moving atoms, 

 is perfectly still ; except that a dull-coloured but 

 agile beetle [Cicindela Guadalupensis) is flitting about 

 and alighting upon it. The little Crabs are very 

 swift and wary, so that it is difficult to capture them, 

 except by making a sudden rush from a distance 

 among them. 



Beyond this creek, as the stream is called, a pro- 

 jecting point runs out into the sea, round which the 

 coast is more rocky. A low cliff" terminates the land, 

 excavated in shallow caverns, from the roofs of which 

 the Cave Swallows {Hiriindo pceciloma) suspend their 

 mud-formed nests ; and great masses of honeycombed 

 limestone lie in the sea at its base. After a while, 

 the cliff" becomes gradually obsolete, and the beach 

 of coral sand reappears. 



All along the beach at high-water-mark there lay, 

 at the time of which I speak, an immense number of 

 Sponges, exhibiting great variety of colour, form, and 

 structure ; they were mingled with Sea-weeds, and 

 had been, as I was informed, thrown up by the sea 

 in a very tremendous gale that had occurred a few 

 months before my visit. I collected some hundreds 

 of specimens of the different species, with little 

 labour; and, as they had all dried with the gelatinous 



