EKIOCHEIR JAPONICUS. 
91 
stoning the frogs, hut causing much trouble and 
uneasiness to the gamekeeper — so do the urchins of 
the Flowery Land resort to these oozy pools for 
useful sport or idle recreation. With an artfully- 
fashioned wicker basket, narrow at the top and 
sloping at the sides, the pig-tailed boy advances 
cautiously into the yielding mud, probes with his 
toes the overhanging banks, or plunges both his 
arms beneath the spongy roots. The object of his 
search, when captured, is adroitly transferred to the 
basket hung about his neck, and on examination 
turns out to be the Eriocheir japonicus, or the 
“^crab with a hahy hand.” This creature is of a 
dark olive hue, freckled and flat-backed, apathetic 
in his disposition, by no means nimble on his pins, 
nor aggressive with his hirsute claws. Placed on 
the ground, he shambles along sideways towards 
the water, never moving in an inland direction, 
and, when possible, speedily makes himself invisible 
beneath the soft black mud. Strolling through the 
unsavoury purlieus of the village of Woosung, I 
noticed in all the fish-shops long strings of these 
