SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 
89 
the edges of the carapace, or upper part of the shell between 
the forefinger and thumb, and allowing the legs to drop, the 
body will at once be seen to work as if wr-ought with a 
hinge. Inspecting it thoroughly, we find immediately 
beneath the edge of the upper part, or what we may term 
the lid of the shell, an incision running round about two- 
thirds of the circumference, and so finely is the cut executed 
that it seems to have been done by a sharp-edged tool ; and 
looking into the interior, we find it to be an almost entirely 
empty box, destitute of its original contents. How this has 
come about we will presently have every chance of seeing. 
Boarding, then, our smallboat, we push her out on the sand- 
bank till we attain a depth of about two or three feet of 
water, then casting out the anchor, the full broadside of the 
boat is held by the oars to the sun, the eff'ect of which is to 
allow the light to stream through the water beneath the 
boat to the opposite side, where the dark shadow allows the 
watchers to see the bottom as clear almost as a newspaper 
in the hands. Steady now, with as little movement as 
possible, for while the crab may be styled the fox of the 
shore, and a most pugnacious creature, he is, nevertheless, 
extremely timid and easily frightened into hiding. Yon 
patch of algce, with its outlying stems and broad brown 
fronds as motionless as the leaves of a cabbage garden is a 
splendid cover. Keep your eyes upon it. Presently the 
fronds begin to quiver, but are soon as still as before; again 
they are agitated, but this time with greater vigour, and 
the tossing and quivering plainly tells that a struggle is 
going on. Now our curiosity is aroused, but still we see 
nothing to indicate the species of the creatures nor the 
nature of their movements. Ha ! there is the first sight of 
our wished-for object — a specimen of the above-mentioned 
class of crabs, about the size of the palm of the hand, 
