I40 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
stumps of hollow trees, clefts of rocks, and from holes 
which they dig for themselves in the earth. 
The sea is their destination, and here they cast their 
spawn. For this purpose, no sooner has the crab 
reached the shore than it eagerly goes to the edge of 
the water and lets the waves wash over its body to 
wash off the spawn. The eggs are hatched under 
the sand, and soon after, millions of the new-born 
crabs are seen quitting the shore, and slowly traveling 
up the mountains. In going down, they turn neither 
to right nor left; even if they meet a house, they will 
attempt to scale it. The procession sets forward with 
the precision of an army. It is commonly divided 
into battalions, with the strongest in front. The night 
is their chief time of traveling, but if it rains by day, 
they improve that occasion. When the sun shines, 
they make a universal halt till evening. In the season 
of moulting, they retire to their burrows to cast their 
shells, filling them with grass and leaves. 
My native boy’s account of their habits agreed sub- 
stantially with this, and he added, moreover, that if 
there was any one thing better than another, it was the 
flesh of these same crabs; a statement I can cheerfully 
verify, as that night we feasted on crab on the half 
shell; crabs’ claws, crab fricasseed and crab roasted. 
As the camp we had left was ata good height above 
the sea-coast, we were now in the upper regions of the 
mountains. The vegetation had already changed to 
a great extent and had more of an Alpine character. 
As we walked along we could now and then catch 
glimpses of the sea at a distance, and obtain a view 
of the nearer sea of trees, spread over the fair valleys 
below us. In the afternoon we were painfully scaling 
