.1 GRAND BALL. 



75 



like antennae. She 

 to dancing on 

 lives in the mud 

 is enjoy- 



Well! I never saw a dance like that before, did you? And 

 everybody is dancing: no lazy people here. There must be a 

 thousand people. A thousand ! There must be a million ! 



"Hop! Hop! Skip! Skip! Eight claw, left claw, down the 

 middle!" 



Don't you wish we could be sand-hoppers, too, just for a few 

 minutes? That is Mr. Sand-hopper himself in the picture, the one 

 who is just jumping backward so nimbly. He is dancing with his 

 cousin, Miss Corophium, — that lovely creature with the long, 

 graceful, claw- 

 is not quite used 

 sand, for she 

 at home ; but 

 ing herself very 

 much. The lady 

 in the left-hand 

 corner is Mrs. 

 Sand-screw, who 

 is dancing back 

 to back with Mr. 

 Kroyler's Sand- 

 screw, her third 



cousin. It is quite a family party, you see, for host and guests are 

 all related to each other. 



Curious people, aren't they? The biggest cannot be more than 

 an inch long. Their hard, shining shells are polished as bright as 

 possible, and their claws all neatly arranged. They have twelve 

 legs, some of which they use in walking and some in swimming; 

 indeed, one of their family names is Amphipoda, which means 

 " both kinds of feet." Some of the ladies are cari-ying their eggs 

 with them, packed away under the fore-part of their bodies, just 

 where the legs are joined on. Shouldn't you think they would be i 

 afraid of dropping them? 



Ah! I^ow they are going to supper! There is the feast, spread 

 out on the sand. Great heaps of delicious rotten sea-weed, and 

 plenty of worms, — a supper fit for a king, if the king happens to 



