TOURNAMENTS OF CRABS 219 



the sand at the mouth of her burrow. If this demure 

 little flirt happened to creep near the burrow of one 

 of the males, then that favoured individual became 

 frantic with excitement, dancing round his domain on 

 tip-toe and waving his great cherry hand as if 

 demented. Then if another male, burning with 

 jealously, showed a desire to interfere, the two puny 

 little suitors would make savage back-handed swipes 

 at one another, wielding their cumbrous hands as if 

 they had no weight at all. Unfortunately, though I 

 spent many a precious hour on the watch from time 

 to time, I could never see that these combats came 

 to anything : the males seemed always to be in a 

 state of passionate excitement, and the females to be 

 always indifferent and unconcerned ; and though the 

 dismembered chelipeds of vanquished males could 

 often be seen lying on the battlefield, I never had 

 the satisfaction of beholding a good stand-up fight 

 fought out to the sweet end, or a female rewarding 

 a successful champion with her heartless person. 



During this survey of the Goddvari coast we 

 made six successful hauls of the reversible trawl in 

 deep water, under the auspices of our officiating 

 commander, Lieutenant G. S. Gunn, R.N. In the 

 depths between 250 and 400 fathoms, where the 

 bottom consisted of dark-coloured unconsolidated ooze, 

 we fell in with many kinds of deep-sea eels and fishes 



