CRUSTACEA — CRAB. 787 



The sea is the place of destination, and to that they direct their march, 

 with right-lined precision. No geometrician could send them to their 

 destination by a shorter course ; they neither turn to the right nor left, 

 whatever obstacles intervene ; and even if they meet with a house, they will 

 attempt to scale the walls to keep the unbroken tenor of their way. But 

 though this be the general order of their route, they upon other occasions are 

 compelled to conform to the face of the country ; and if it be intersected by 

 rivers, they are then seen to wind along the course of the stream. The 

 procession sets forward from the mountains with the regularity of an army 

 under the guidance of an experienced commander. They are commonly 

 divided into three battalions ; of which the first consists of the strongest and 

 boldest males, that, like pioneers, march forward to clear the route and face 

 the greatest dangers. These are often obliged to halt for want of rain, and 

 go into the most convenient encampment till the weather changes. The 

 main body of the army is composed of females, which never leave the 

 mountains till the rain is set in for some time, and then descend in regular 

 battalia, being formed into columns of fifty paces broad, and three miles 

 deep, and so close that they almost cover the ground. Three or four days 

 after this, the rear-guard follows; a straggling, undisciplined tribe, consisting 

 of males and females, but neither so robust nor so numerous as the former. 

 The night is their chief time of proceeding ; but if it rains by day, they do 

 not fail to profit by the occasion ; and they continue to move forward in 

 their slow, uniform manner. When the sun shines, and is hot upon the sur- 

 face of the ground, they then make a universal halt, and wait till the cool 

 of the evening. When they are terrified, they march back in a confused, 

 disorderly manner, holding up their nippers, with which they sometimes 

 tear off a piece of the skin, and then leave the weapon where they inflicted 

 the wound. They even try to intimidate their enemies ; for they often 

 clatter their nippers together, as if it were to threaten those that come to 

 disturb them. But though they thus strive to be formidable to man, they 

 are much more so to each other ; for they are possessed of one most unsocial 

 property, which is, that if any of them by accident is maimed in such a 

 manner as to be incapable of proceeding, the rest fall upon and devour it on 

 the spot, and then pursue their journey. 



When, after a fatiguing march, and escaping a thousand dangers, for they 

 are sometimes three months in getting to the shore, they have arrived at 

 their destined port, they prepare to cast their spawn. The peas are yet 

 within their bodies, and not excluded, as is usual in animals of this kind, 

 under the tail ; for the creature waits for the benefit of the sea water to help 

 the delivery. For this purpose, the crab has no sooner reached the shore 

 than it eagerly goes to the edge of the water, and lets the waves wash over 

 its body two or three times. This seems only a preparation for bringing- 

 their spawn to maturity; for without farther delay they withdraw to seek a 

 lodging upon land ; in the mean time, the spawn grows larger, is excluded 



