“Though easily drowned, a certain proportion of moisture seems necessary to the existence of these animals, and the advanced guard is often obliged to halt from the want of rain.  The females, indeed, never leave the mountains till the rainy season has fairly set in.  They march chiefly during the night, but if it happens to rain during the day, they always profit by it.  When the sun is hot they halt till evening.  They march very slowly, and are sometimes three months in gaining the shore.  When alarmed they run in a confused and disorderly manner, holding up and clattering their nippers with a threatening attitude, and if suffered to take hold of the hand they bite severely.  If in their journey any of them should be so maimed as to be unable to proceed, the others fall upon it and devour it.

“Arrived at the coast, they prepare to cast their spawn.  They go to the edge of the water, and suffer the waves to wash twice or thrice over their bodies, and then withdraw to seek a lodging upon the land.  After a short time the spawn becomes ready for being deposited, when they again seek the sea-side, and leave the spawn to be brought to maturity by the heat of the sun.  Much of the spawn, which exactly resembles the roe of a herring, is devoured by the fishes; that which escapes soon arrives at maturity, and millions of little crabs are then to be seen slowly travelling towards the mountains.

“The old ones in the mean time seek to return to their old haunts, but so feeble are they that they seem scarcely able to crawl along.  Some of them, indeed, are obliged to remain in the level parts of the country till they recover, making holes in the earth, which they block up with leaves and dirt.  In these they cast their old shells, after which they soon recover, and become so fat as to be delicious food.

“At the season of their descent from the mountains, the natives of the islands which they inhabit, eagerly wait for them and destroy them in thousands.  On their descent they are only taken for the roe or spawn, the flesh being then poor and lean:  on their return from the sea-side they are in greatest repute, being then fat and high flavoured.

“The crab-catchers adopt various modes of securing them, but they are obliged to be very cautious, for when the animals perceive themselves attacked, they throw themselves on their back, and snap their claws about, pinching whatever they lay hold of very severely.  The crab-catchers, however, soon learn to seize them by the hind legs, in such a manner as that the nippers cannot reach them.”

“You said, Uncle Thomas, that the fishes watched the descent of the crabs, that they might feed on the spawn.  Do you think that they are endowed with reasoning powers, as well as the higher classes of animals, Uncle Thomas?”

“No doubt of it, Frank.  Old Isaac Walton, the most amusing author on angling who ever wrote, tells many curious stories about fishes, of their coming to be fed at the sound of a bell, and so forth.