THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 185 
are groups of little Barnacles (Zepas), from the 
size of a pin’s head to half an inch in length. While 
under water, these are incessantly projecting and re- 
tracting the elegant curled apparatus of cirri with 
which they are furnished, resembling a plume of 
feathers; from which resemblance it probably was 
that the inhabitants of a species found on the Scot- 
tish coast were asserted to be “of that nature to be 
finally by nature of seas resolved into geese.”* The 
purpose of this continual motion of the fringed arms 
appears to be twofold; first, to make a constant eddy 
in the surrounding water, and thus bring minute ani- 
mals within reach, and then to enclose such as are 
brought in as by the cast of a net, and convey them 
to the mouth. Crawling on the surface of the weed 
we may now and then find a nimble little Crab 
(Lupa), with the shell on each side projecting hori- 
zontally into a sharp spine. We are surprised at 
first to find a Crab on the surface of the Ocean, as 
the species with which we are familiar have not the 
power of swimming. On endeavouring to procure 
one for examination, however, we no sooner touch 
the fragment of the weed with the boat-hook, than the 
watchful little Crab hurries off into the water, and 
swims rapidly away out of reach. If we be for- 
tunate enough to secure one by skilful manoeuvring 
with the bucket or dip-net, we shall discover a 
peculiar structure, by means of which these Ocean- 
crabs are endowed with the faculty of swimming. 
In the common Crab, all the feet, except the claws, 
terminate in a sharp point, but in the present genus 
* Bodce, Cosmography of Albioun. Edin. about 1541. 
Q2 
