OE, GLIMPSES BENEATH THE WATERS. 



portant. But not less interesting are liis graceful 

 moyements : Now, he steals stealthily oyer the 

 pebbles or the fronds of the Algae, with his long, 

 slender, hair-like horns in gentle motion, with all 

 the seeming wariness of a cat (the resemblance 

 being increased by candle-light by the fiery glare of 

 the eye); next, leaving his walking apparatus, or 

 legs, inactive, he uses only the swimming members, 

 which are larger and flatter, and bordered with a 

 compact fringe; agitating these instruments with 

 beautiful regularity, he rises in the water with 

 graceful ease (see Plate VI.), his semi-transparent 

 body, as he rises, giving to his appearance a strange 

 and somewhat apparition-like aspect, which has 

 caused him to be compared to a marine spectre. 



The Prawn takes its food with its second feet, 

 two-fingered hands or claws, and carries it to its 

 mouth. The hands of the first pair of legs are only 

 rudimental in appearance, but are precisely fitted to 

 their special purpose* They are his cleansing appa- 

 ratus; and it is most interesting to watch the 

 operations of his toilet when he uses these fringes as 

 brushes, with which he cleanses his whole person 

 most thoroughly, being almost unmerciful in the 

 amount of severe scrubbing to which he subjects 

 himself. 



