NATURAL HISTORY. 
200 
the class, though unfurnished with claws, it is seen not above 
an inch. These all live in the water, and can bear its absence 
for but a few hours. The shell is black when taken out of 
the water, but turns red by boiling. The most common way 
of taking the lobster is in a basket, or pot, as the fishermen 
call it, made of wicker work, in which they put the bait, and 
then throw it to the bottom of the sea, in six or ten fathom 
water. The lobsters creep into this for the sake of the bait, 
but are not able to get out again. The river craw-Jish 
differs little from the lobster, but that the one will live only 
in fresh-water, and the other will thrive only in the sea. 
The spiny Lobster also differs merely by the offensive 
armour which it bears upon its back and claws. 
As the Crab is found upon land as well as in the water, 
the peculiarity of its situation produces a difference in its ha- 
bitudes, which it is proper to describe. The Land-crab is 
found in some of the warmer regions of Europe, and in 
great abundance in all the tropical climates in Africa and 
America. They are of various kinds, and endued with 
various properties; some being healthful, delicious, and 
nourishing food ; others poisonous or malignant to the last 
degree; some are not above half a inch broad, others are 
found a foot over ; some are of a dirty brown, and others 
beautifully mottled. That animal, called the violet crab of 
the Caribee Islands, is the most noted, both for its shape, 
the. delicacy of its flesh, and the singularity of its manners. 
The violet crab somewhat resembles two hands cut through 
the middle and joined together ; for each side looks like four 
fingers, and the two nippers or claws resemble the thumbs. 
All the rest of the body is covered with a shell as large as 
a man’s hand and bunched in the middle, on the fore-part of 
which there are two long eyes of the size of a grain of bar- 
ley, as transparent as crystal and as hard as horn. A little 
below these is the mouth, covered with a sort of barbs, 
under which there are two broad sharp teeth as white as 
snow. They are not placed, as in other animals, cross- 
ways, but in the opposite direction, not much unlike the 
blade of a pair of scissars. With these teeth they can 
easily cut leaves, fruits, and rotten wood, which is their 
usual food. But their principal instrument for cutting and 
seizing their food is their nippers, which catch such an hold, 
that the animal loses the limb sooner than its grasp, and is 
often seen scampering off, having left its claw still holding 
fast upon the enemy. The faithful claw seems to perform 
its duty, and keeps for above a minute fastened upon the 
