120 A NATURALIST IN TASMANIA ch. 



is usually to be found, often with several young 

 ones. The eggs and young before hatching are 

 carried under the tail of the female as in the 

 ordinary Crayfishes. They generally choose damp 

 button-grass plains or damp gullies for their 

 burrows, but almost everywhere through the 

 myrtle forests their holes can be found in appar- 

 ently dry situations, though on digging down 

 some way the extreme moisture of the soil can 

 be detected. The burrows often extend two feet 

 into the ground. The Land Crabs in the west are 

 well known to the miners, as they interfere very 

 considerably with the dams and sluices by riddling 

 the banks with their burrows; considering what 

 small animals they are, this may give some idea 

 of their great abundance. Although these animals 

 are independent of the actual presence of water, 

 their burrows are always exceedingly moist and 

 contain a kind of liquid mud in the chambers 

 at the end ; it is untrue, however, that a pro- 

 longed immersion in water kills the Land Crab, 

 as I have myself kept them alive for several 

 days in pure fresh water, and Mr. Adams has 

 kept them alive in this way for weeks. 



Whereas the slopes and gullies of the west 

 coast mountains are clothed with a peculiar 

 vegetation of great luxuriance, the rugged exposed 

 tops of the mountains at an elevation of about 

 4,0(X) feet support a no less characteristic and 

 interesting scrub, utterly unlike the scrub found 

 in the gum country on the elevated greenstone 



