ox CRUSTACEA. ^ 293 



tense pellicle, similar to \A"et parchment. It is for this reason, 

 that they are more delicate, or at all events more profitable. 



Rochefort supposes that this change of skin takes place 

 only on their return from the sea. It precedes it, according ' 

 to Labat, and is made immediately after the laying. We 

 shall neither follow this author nor Rochefort, into the details 

 which they present us upon this subject, having already al- 

 luded to them in speaking of the generalities of the class. 



The eggs are very small, and of a peculiarly fine flavour. 

 In cooking they assume a red colour, like those of craw-fish 

 and lobsters. They are collected under the tail of the female, 

 into two tufts or pellets, separated from each other by a mem- 

 brane, and accompanied with a thick substance, of the colour 

 of the eggs, but which becomes white when it has undergone 

 the action of fire. The interior of the body of the males pre- 

 sents, besides the substance which may be compared to fat, a 

 greenish matter, the taumalin. Both these substances serve 

 to make the sauce with which these animals are eaten. 



These Crustacea, with the exception of the white crab, 

 which is in no great estimation, and is, moreover, an object of 

 suspicion, because it lives in places where the mancinella 

 and the mimosa are found, constitute a true manna for the 

 country. They form a large portion of the food of the Carribs. 

 The negroes also eat a great deal of them, nor are they re- 

 jected by the whites themselves. 



Impressed with the notion that the crabs owe their hurtful 

 qualities to the fruit of the mancinella, Sloane imagined that 

 he explained the fatal accidents which have occurred to some 

 persons after eating these animals, from the neglect of the pre- 

 caution of cleansing their interior, and removing the ill- 

 digested particles of this fruit. But besides that it by no 

 means appears that these Crustacea feed upon this fruit in the 

 island of Grenada, where they are often taken under the man- 

 cinella, it has never been discovered that they disagreed 



