34 
BLACK KIVER. 
under surface of projecting ledges, which made them 
more hard to he got at. 
These Chitons I prepared in the following manner : 
— Having brought them on board, 1 threw them into 
a tub of cold fresh water to kill them. When dead, 
which was known by the absence of muscular rigidity, 
the soft fleshy parts were cut out, leaving only the 
shelly plates and the leathery margin. Some strips 
of board, just wide enough to receive the specimens, 
having been provided, I placed each Chiton length- 
wise, exactly in the position it had assumed when 
alive on the rock, and with a thread, passed several 
times round it and the board, bound it firmly down. 
It thus dried in a natural form, instead of the con- 
dition in which we sometimes see these interesting 
shells in cabinets, coiled up like a millepede, from 
which, when once dried, it is difficult to relax them 
permanently. 
A day or two afterwards, I obtained from the 
rocks near Black River Chiton piceus in abundance, 
a much larger and finer species than any of the 
former. 
THE PAINTED SWIFT-FOOT. 
Dec. Ylth. — About the rocks in the vicinity 
of Black River, I noticed many specimens of this 
beautiful Crab {Grapsus tenuicrustatus). Its form is 
remarkably flat, as are also the legs, and particularly 
the thighs, which pack one on the other in a very 
curious manner : the hue is a chaste warm grey, 
marked with transverse zigzag black lines, somewhat 
like writing. It is difiicult to capture, for it is very 
