DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND CRAB. THE cancer ruricola, land crab, or violet crab, with a smooth entire thorax, and the two last joints of the feet armed with spines, inhabits the Bahama islands, as well as most lands between the tropics, and feeds upon vegetables. These animals live not only in a kind of orderly society in their retreats in the mountains, but regularly once in a year march down to the sea side in a body of some millions at a time. As they multiply in great numbers, they choose the month of April or May to begin their expedition; and then sally ont by myriads from the stumps of hollow trees, from the clefts of rocks, and from the holes which they dig for themselves under the surface of the earth. At that time the whole ground is covered with this band of adventurers; there is no setting down one's foot without treading on them. The sea is their place of destination, and to that they direct their march with rightlined precision. No geometrician could send them to their station by a shorter course; they neither turn to the right nor the left, whatever obstacles intervene ; and even if they meet with a house, they will attempt to scale the walls to keep the unbroken tenor of their way. But though this be the general order of their route, they, upon other occasions, are obliged to conform to the face of the country; and if it is intersected with rivers, they are then seen to wind along the course of the stream. The procession sets forward from the mountains with the regularity of an army under an experienced commander. They are commonly divided into three battalions, of which the first consists of the strongest and boldest males, who, like pioneers, march forward to clear the route, and face the greatest dangers. They are often obliged to halt for want of rain, and to go into the most convenient encampment till the weather changes. The main body of the army is composed of females, which never leave the mountains till the rain is set in for some time, and then descend in regular battalia, being formed into columns of fifty paces broad, and three miles deep, and so close that they almost cover the ground. The rear guard follows, three or four days after; a straggling undisciplined tribe, consisting of males and females, but not so vigorous as the former. The night is their chief time of proceeding; but if it rains by day, they do not fail to profit by the occasion; and they continue to move forward in their slow uniform manner. When the sun shines, and is hot on the surface of the ground, they make an universal halt, and wait till the cool of the evening. When they are terrified, they march back in a confused disorderly manner, holding up their nippers, with which they sometimes tear off a piece of the skin, and then leave the weapon where they inflicted the wound. They even try to intimidate their enemies; for they often clatter their nippers together, as if to threaten those that disturb them. But though they thus strive to be formidable to man, they are much more so to each other; for they are possessed of one most unsocial property, which is, that if any of them by accident is maimed in such a manner as to be incapable of proceeding, the rest fall upon and devour it on the spot, and then pursue their journey. When, after a fatiguing march, and escaping a thousand dangers (for they are sometimes three months in getting to the shore), they have arrived at their destined port, they prepare to cast their spawn. The peas are yet within their bodies, and not excluded, as is usual in animals of the kind, under the tail; for the creature waits for the benefit of the sea water to help the delivery. It has no sooner reached the shore, than it goes to the edge of the water, and lets the waves wash over its body two or three times. This seems only a preparation for bringing the spawn to maturity; for without further delay, they withdraw to seek a lodging upon land. In the mean time the spawn grows larger, is excluded out of the body, and sticks to the barbs under the flap, or more properly the tail. This bunch is seen as big as a hen's egg, and exactly resembling the roes of herrings. In this state they once more seek the shore for the last time; and shaking off their 1 spawn into the water, leave accident to bring it to maturity. At this time whole shoals of hungry fish are at the shore in expectation of this annual supply; the sea to a great distance seems black with them; and about two-thirds of the crabs' eggs are immediately devoured by these rapacious invaders. The eggs that escape are hatched under the sand, and soon after millions at a time of these little crabs are seen quitting the shore, and slowly travelling up to the mountains. The old ones, however, are not so active to return; they have become so feeble and lean, that they can hardly creep along, and the flesh at that time changes its colour. Most of them, therefore, are obliged to continue in the flat parts of the country, till they recover, making holes in the earth, which they cover at the mouth with leaves and dirt, that no air may enter. There they throw off their old shells, which they leave quite whole, the place where they opened on the belly being unseen. At that time they are quite naked, and almost without motion for six days together, when they become so fat as to be delicious food. They have then under their stomachs four large white stones, which gradually decrease in proportion as the shell hardens, and, when they come to perfection, are not to be found. It is at that time that the animal is seen slowly making its way back, which is commonly performed in six weeks. This animal, when possessed of its retreats in the mountains, is impregnable; for, only subsisting on vegetables, it seldom ventures out; and its habitation being in the most inaccessible places, it remains for a great part of the season in perfect security. It is only when impelled by the desire of bringing forth its young, and when compelled to descend into the flat country, that it is taken. At that time the natives wait for its descent in eager expectation, and destroy thousands; but, disregarding their bodies, they only seek for that small spawn which lies on each side of the stomach within the shell, of about the thickness of a man's thumb. They are much more valuable upon their return after they have cast their shell; for, being covered with a skin resembling soft parchment, almost every part except the stomach may be eaten. They are taken in the holes by feeling for them with an instrument; they are sought after by night, when on their journey, by flambeaux. The instant the animal perceives itself attacked, it throws itself on its back, and with its claws pinches most terribly whatever it happens to fasten on. But the dexterous crab-catcher takes them by the hinder legs in such a manner that the nippers cannot touch him, and thus he throws them into his bag. Sometimes also they are caught when they take refuge in the bottoms of holes in rocks by the sea side, by covering the mouth of the hole to prevent them getting out; and then, soon after, the tide coming, enters the hole, and the animal is found, upon its ebbing, drowned in its retreat. These crabs are of various sizes, the largest about six inches wide; they walk sideways, like the sea crab, and are shaped like them. Some are black, some yellow, some red, and others variegated with red, white, and yellow mixed. Some of these are poisonous; and several people have died by eating them, particularly the black kind. The light-coloured are reckoned the best, and, when full in flesh, are very well tasted. In some of the sugar islands they are eaten without danger; and are no small help to the negro slaves, who, on many of these islands, would fare very hardly without them. WAR-SONG OF OUTALISSI, ONE OF THE CHARACTERS IN GERTRUDE OF WYOMING. "AND I could weep?"-th' Oneyda chief His descant wildly thus begun : "But that I may not stain with grief Or bow this head in woe; For by my wrongs, and by my wrath, (That fires yon heav'n with storms of death), Shall light us to the foe: And we shall share, my Christian boy! To-morrow let us do or die! But when the bolt of death is hurl'd, Its echoes, and its empty tread, Or shall we cross yon mountains blue, Whose streams my kindred nation quaff'd ; And by my side, in battle true, A thousand warriors drew the shaft? Ah! there in desolation cold, The desert serpent dwells alone, Where grass o'ergrows each mould'ring bone, And stones themselves to ruin grown, Like me, are death-like old. Then seek we not their camp-for there But hark, the trump! to-morrow thou |