A. E. Verrill — Decapod Crustacea of Bermuda. 



457 



from the Carolina coasts or the Florida Keys should not flourish in 

 Bermuda if once introduced there iti considerable numbers and 

 protected from their enemies at first. 



Probably hundreds of species have been accidentally carried there, 

 singly or in small numbers, in past times, which have failed to estab- 

 lish themselves, either because they became too far separated to find 

 their mates at the breeding season, or because they were too soon 

 eaten up by voracious fishes. Yet a single female crab, carrying 

 fertilized eggs, might succeed in introducing the species, for their 

 eggs often amount to 5,000, or even 10,000 at one time. Aside 

 from edible species, the introduction of the smaller kinds would 

 afford a large additional supply of food for useful fishes, and thus 

 benefit the fisheries. 



Probably there is no locality in the world so well adapted by 

 nature for experiments in the naturalization of marine animals as 

 Bermuda. There are here numerous deep basins and ponds, of pure 

 sea water, due to fallen caverns, which have subterranean connec- 

 tions with the sea through pores and crevices in the porous lime- 

 stone, by which the sea water is constantly renewed. In such places 

 large numbers of marine creatures could be protected and allowed 

 to breed till well naturalized, and numerous enough to be safely 

 liberated. The equable temperature of the climate is also particu- 

 larly favorable for such experiments. That any given species of the 

 West Indian marine fauna is not now found in Bermuda does not 

 prove that it is not able to live there, but rather that it has lacked 

 the opportunity or means of arriving there. 



There is a large field open here for enterj)rising naturalists and 

 biologists. 



Figure 67. — Sesarina Ricordi, var. terrestris, uov. Bermuda; x \lj^. Phot. 

 A. H. Veirill. 



