1696.] SEA AND LAND CEABS. 213 



Sea and Land Crabsi are liere also to be found, but in 

 small numbers. 



in. Its sting is very painful. My dog was bit by one of them, which 

 was more than six inches long ; the wound turned to a kind of ulcer, 

 and was three weeks in healing." (Ibid., I. c, p. 70.) 



^ " There are lobsters or cray-fish of a prodigious size, their claws are 

 net large ; they are blue-marbled with black. I have seen here a 

 species of lobster that is smaller and of a beautiful form ; it was of a 

 sky-blue ; it had two little claws, divided into two articulations, like a 

 knife with the blade shutting into the handle." 



" There is a great variety of crabs. The following seemed to be most 

 worthy of notice. A sort that is rugged, with tubercules and points 

 like a madrepore (Parthenojie sjjinosissima) ; another that has upon its 

 back the impression of five seals ; another with something in the shape 

 of a horse-shoe at the end of its claws ; a sort covered with hair, that has 

 no claws, aud that adheres to the sides of ships ; a crab marbled with grey, 

 the shell of which, though smooth and polished, is very uneven. ]\lany 

 irregular and strange figures are observable among these, which are, 

 notwithstanding, perfectly alike upon each crab ; that with its eyes at 

 the end of two long tubes like telescopes, which, when it is not using 

 them, it deposits in grooves along the side of its shell. A crab 

 with red claws, one much larger than the other {Cancer sanguinokntus). 

 A small crab with a shell thrice as big as itself, in which it is covered 

 over as by a buckler, so that its claws cannot be seen when it walks." 

 {B. de St. Pierre, p. 77.) 



" A kind of crab has been lately discovered to burrow at the foot of 

 the coco-nut palm. Nature has provided this animal with a long claw, 

 at the end of which is a nail serving to extract the substance of the 

 fruit by the holes I have described. It has not the large pincers of 

 other crabs — they would be useless to it. This animal was discovered. 

 on the Isle of Palms, to the north of Madagascar, by the shipwrecked 

 crew of the i/ewreja-, which was lost there going to Bengal." (/6/d,p. 127.) 

 '' Thesea-side is full of holes in which lodge a great numberof Tuuloiiroux ; 

 they are an amphibious crab, and make burrows underground like 

 moles. They run very fast, and if you attempt to catch them they 

 snap their claws, and preseut their points by way of menace." {Ibid., 

 p. 69.) 



" Another amphibious and very extraordinary creature is the Bernard 

 rHermite, a kind of lobster whose hinder part is not provided with a 

 shell, but it instinctively lodges itself in empty shells which it finds on 

 the shore. One may see them run along in great numbers, each with 

 its house after it, which it abandons for a larger when its growth makes 

 it necessary," {Ibid., p. 70.) 



