TheHijloryof BookL 



SEA-SFIDER. 



THc Sea-Spider is by fome eonceiv'd to be a kind of Crab : 

 It is cover'd with two very hard fcales, whereof the 

 uppermoft is fbmewbat i rough , and the Iowermoft is more 

 fmooth, and jagged with fliarp points .* It hath many legs or 

 claws, and a ftrong tail , fometimes about a foot in length : 

 They are much fought after by fome of the Savages to be em- 

 ploy 'd about their Arrows : When this fifli is dried in the Sun 5 

 the feale or (hell of it becomes gliftering, and in a manner 

 transparent, though naturally it be of anAlh-colour. 



CR ABS. . 



THe ordinary Crabs of the Caribbies are of the fame figure 

 as thofe taken in thefe parts : There is a great difference 

 among them as to bignefs, but the rareft are thofe which live 

 by prey : They afe very common in moft of the Iflands, but 

 above all in thofe called the Virgins : They lurk under the 

 ftumps and ftocks of the Trees growing on the Sea-fide, and 

 as it were imitating a kind of Frogs, called the fijhing-Frogs y 

 they difcover from their lurking-holes theOyfters and Mufcles* 

 which they prey upon - y and the Height they ufe in the taking of 

 them is worth our notice. Having found by experience that 

 their Mordants or Claws are not ftrong enough to break the 

 Ihells wherein thofe delicate fifties are contain'd 5 and having 

 obferved that feveral times of the day they open their (hells to 

 take the air, they diligently watch the time, and having fur- 

 niuYd themfelves with a little round pebble, they hold it ready 

 in one of their claws, and coming to the Oyfter or Mufcle, let 

 it fall fo cunningly into the hal£open'd (hell, that not being 

 able to clofe again, the fifh becomes the prey of thefe iubtle 

 Grabs. 



As to the shells found in thefe Iflands, in the Creeks and 

 Nooks into which they are call: by the Sea there are abun- 

 of them, and of feveral kinds : The moft fought after and moft 

 confiderable are thefe. 



BVRGAV. 



THe Burgau, which is of the figure of a Snail, being un- 

 cas'd out of the outermoft coat, prefents to the eye a 

 filver (hell intermixt with lpots of a bright black, a lively green, 

 and fo perfect and-ftiining a grey, that no Enameller could 

 come neer it with all the affiftances of his art. As foon as the 

 fifh which had been lodg'd within this precious little Manfion 

 hath been difleiz'd thereof, there is immediately feen a magni- 

 ficent 



