ICHTHYOLOGIGAL MARVELS. 205 



whole is baked in the oven, and, served up 

 piping hot, it forms an admirable c whet.' An- 

 other kind of shell-fish is indeed a ' soft crab ; ' 

 when cooked it seems to melt away, no meat 

 remaining within : a third, also soft, is red even 

 before being boiled. On every unfrequented 

 strip of sand or weed small crabs gather in thou- 

 sands ; most of them have only one large claw, 

 and their colours are a brilliant pink, pearly 

 white, violet, and tender red. 



The seas are little explored (1857), and there 

 are legends of ichthvolooical marvels which re- 

 mind us of European romantic zoology. I 

 was told by Lieut. -Colonel Hamerton of a fish, pos- 

 sibly one of the Mursenidae, measuring nine feet 

 long by three in diameter : the shape was some- 

 what like a leech, both extremities being similar ; 

 the ribs resembled, but were rather flatter than, 

 those of a bullock, and the flesh had the appear- 

 ance of beef. A specimen, he said, had lately 

 been brought from Kipombui, a small harbour 

 opposite Zanzibar ; the prey, however, is always 

 cut up as soon as caught. This reminds us of 

 the 6 full-sized devil-fish ' of the West Indian 

 seas. The Arabs describe a monstrous polypus, 

 with huge eyes and arms 10 feet long : they de- 

 clare that it has entangled bathers and pulled 



