^04 THE LAND CRAB. 



they betome so fat as to be delicious food. After 

 this they march slowly back to the montains. 



They subsist on vegetables, and, except when im- 

 pelled by the desire of bringing forth their young, 

 seldom venture out from their mountainous retreats. 

 At this season the inhabitants of the islands where 

 they are found wait in eager expectation for their 

 descent, and destroy some thousands of them : they 

 disregard the bodies, and take only the spawn that 

 lies on each side of the stomach within the shell, 

 about the thickness of a man's thumb. The animals 

 are much more valuable for eating on their return, 

 after they have cast their shells. They are taken 

 in the holes ; and also sought for by night, when on 

 their journey, by flambeaux. The instant the crabs 

 perceive themselves attacked, they throw themselves 

 on their back, and with their claws pinch most dread-* 

 fully whatever they happen to fasten on. But the 

 crab-catcher seizes them by the hinder legs in such 

 a manner that the nippers cannot touch him. They 

 are caught in their holes by the sea-side, by so fixing 

 a stick as to prevent their escaping : and soon after- 

 ward the tide enters the holes, and the animals are 

 drowned. Wafer says that the inhabitants of some 

 of the Caribbee islands, when they have caught 

 them, put them for three or four days into a piece of 

 potatoe ground, in order to render them more firm, 

 and better eating*. 



In general shape these animals are not much un- 



* See Browne's Jamaica, p. 423.— Sloane, ii. 269, — Catesby, ii, 32, 

 Smith's Nevis, p. 16.—— Wafer's Voyage, p. ixx. 



