64 SPIDER-CEABS. 



movement, continually crawling about the rocks and 

 round the sides of the tank, by a gliding motion pro- 

 duced by the attachment and shifting of hundreds of 

 sucker-feet, which are protruded at will, through 

 minute pores in the calcareous integument. Their 

 showy colours are exhibited to advantage on the dark 

 rocks, around the projections and angles of which 

 they wind their flexible bodies, now and then turning 

 back a ray, from which the pellucid suckers are seen 

 stretching and sprawling; and as they mount the 

 glass, not only can their hues be admired, but the 

 exquisite structure of their spines, and the mechanism 

 of their suckers, can be studied at leisure. 



Every haul of the dredge brought up several uni- 

 valve shells, tenanted, not by their original construc- 

 tors and proprietors, but by that busy intruder the 

 Soldier-crab (Pagurm). Several species of this 

 curious creature occurred, to whose vagaries 1 may 

 devote a chapter presently. For a similar reason I 

 shall only just allude to the beautiful Cloak Anemone 

 (Adarmia palliataj, and several other species of 

 this charming family. Long-legged Spider-crabs of 

 the genera Stenorynchus, Inachus, &c. were abundant, 

 sprawling their slender limbs like bristles to an un- 

 conscionable distance, tempting us to think that if we 

 had legs like these, we might cover the ground in a 

 style that would put to shame the old giant-slayer's 

 seven league boots. 



But, as I have said, time and space would fail me 

 if I were to attempt an enumeration of all the objects 

 of interest that were brought to view in the course of 

 a good day's dredging. Mollusca, both naked and 



