28 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA, 
Cramer. I observed, in the little pools of dark 
water by the road-sides and in the woods, numbers 
of creatures that would dart from the edge into 
deep v/ater the instant a footstep approached, so 
quickly that it was almost impossible to catch a 
glance at their form. I at length discovered that 
they were cray-fish {Astacus Americanus)^ closely 
resembling those of our own rivers. 
In the waste places around the city, and espe- 
cially near the shore, the prickly pear [Opuntia 
