262 SOMETHING ABOUT CRABS. 
room, they affording us abundant refined entertainment in 
return for our aquarian hospitality. 
A wonderful thing, so considered, is told in the court 
journals of the Empress Eugenie on publie days; how that 
she appears in sumptuous array, and then will disappear, 
and in an incredibly short space of time reappear in an en- 
tire and elaborate change of dress. Her admirers gaze as 
if it were magical. But suspended from the ceiling of the 
boudoir, garment within garment is the awaiting suit. The 
Empress has but to doff, and then to don, while many zeal- 
ous and tasteful fingers are busy all around —a little read- 
justment of her coiffure, and presto! all is done! and the 
changed creature is again among her astonished admirers. 
But suppose an old knight could put off as one unbroken 
suit his iron encasement, with not so much as the unlacing 
of his gear, and then on the nonce should appear in a new 
suit of mail of high finish and faultless fit, — would not this 
man in iron beat my dame in silk? And yet the knightly 
and the queenly feat are nowhere when we instance the ex- 
uviation and redressing of Mrs. Lupa dicantha, the common 
edible crab. During the first year of its life, this crab puts 
off its hard shelly encasing several times. That is to say, 
when a youngster, it requires several new suits. After t n 
first year until it gains the fully matured age, an annual suit 
suffices. When fully grown, its case is permanent. We knew 
some years ago an old crabber, wholly illiterate, but whose 
intelligence was above the average. He had ^" crabbed 
for the market many years. Often when supplying OUT 
family with fish, has he been closely questioned by us about 
the crabs, and always have his statements tallied one with 
another. In our notes occur the following in the fisherman's 
own words : —"I hev ketched soft crabs for market many ? 
year. The crab sheds every year, chiefly in early summer. 
At that time the he one is mighty kind to his mate. When 
she shows signs of shedding, the he one comes along and 
gits on the she one's back, quite tenderly-like, and entirely 




