88 SUMMER ISLANDS AND A SUMMER SEA 



headmaster was taking a no doubt well-earned nap 

 on its sandy floor. At Kiltan there was a great deal 

 of sickness ; so that, for pity's sake, I had to give up 

 my idea of collecting on the reefs, and to open a 

 medicine shop instead. The most general complaint 

 was subacute ophthalmia, of which the exciting cause 

 was no doubt the awful glare from the snow-white 

 coral beach. Rheumatism was also very common, 

 and I saw some dreadful ulcers, and leprosy was in 

 painful evidence. 



I must not forget to mention that during this part 

 of the voyage we learnt something of the habits of 

 the robber-crabs that we had brought away from 

 South Sentinel. During the day, unless the weather 

 were cloudy, they hardly moved, but after dark they 

 were active, and every night some of them would 

 escape from their cage and climb about the ship, 

 much to the consternation of the watch. They fed 

 chiefly at night, and were shameless cannibals ; though, 

 whether they killed their victims, or only ate the 

 bodies of those that died a natural death, we did 

 not make out. I was much astonished to see one of 

 them drinking from a runnel of rainwater, by dipping 

 its fingers into the water and then putting them into 

 its mouth in the same grotesquely school-boy fashion 

 that crabs commonly adopt when eating. 



On the 13th of May the Investigator made fast 



