APPENDIX. 295 



that, ranging as they do from the comparatively giant-like 

 crab and lobster down to the millions of minute insects 

 which at some places confer a phosphorescent appearance 

 on the waters of the sea. My limits will necessarily confine 

 me to a few of the principal members of the family — the 

 edible Crustacea, in fact; and these I shall endeavor to 

 speak about in such plain language as I think my readers 

 will understand, leaving out as much of the fashionable 

 " scientific slang" as I possibly can. 



The more we study the varied Crustacea of the British 

 shores, the more we are struck with their wonderful forma- 

 tion, and the peculiar habits of their members. I once 

 heard a clergyman at a lecture describe a lobster in brief 

 but fitting terms as a standing romance of the sea — an 

 animal whose clothing is a shell, which it casts away once 

 a year in order that it may put on a larger suit — an animal 

 whose flesh is in its tail and legs, and whose hair is in the 

 inside of its breast, whose stomach Is in its head, and which 

 is changed every year for a new one, and which new one 

 begins its life by devouring the old ! an animal which car- 

 ries its eggs within its body till they become fruitful, and 

 then carries them outwardly under its tail ; an animal which 

 can throw off its legs when they become troublesome, and 

 can in a brief time replace them with others ; and lastly, 

 an animal with very sharp eyes placed in movable horns. 

 The picture is not at all overdrawn. It is a wondrous crea- 

 ture this lobster, and I may be allowed a brief space in 

 which to describe the curious provision of nature which 

 allows for an increase of growth, or provides for the renewal 

 of a broken limb, and which applies generally to the edible 

 Crustacea. 



The habits of the principal Crustacea are now pretty well 

 understood, and their mode of growth is so peculiar as to 

 render a close inspectipn of their habits a most interesting 



