Huntsville gazette., 1884-12-13


:. -, Family-Crabs That Climb Trees
&. Their Enormous Strength.
= Areporter who happened into the
'Mdseum' of Natural History in New
York the other day ran across natu-
: ralist who was examining a curious OBJ
ject. vgVs or
s''That's crab," said he, lifting an
enormous something that might have
served as q shell for large-sized tur-
tie and one of the largest known.
"This is only the top shell; the legs
were unfortunately lost, and if you are
astonished at this you will probably
think | am drawing on my own i'm
agination when I say that the crab
j. when alive was twenty-five feet across. "
The shell was a curious object
>. rough, corrugated, of a light yellow
s hue, and about two feet across. The
eye-stalks were two inches in height,
and between them extended upward a
sslIo1g; sharp spine that would have been
formidable weapon if the giant was
disposed to use it.
..H you could see one of these fel-
lows alive, =, continued the naturalist,
s..and under the circumstances that 1
( did, You wouldn't forget-it. / caught
this fellow myself. They are found in
Japan and known as rock or spider
:. crabs The she'll of the large. ones at
tains a length OF about two feet and re-
sembles moss-covered rock. From
it branch the legs, that are truly enor-
nous, ! and as l have said, this one
when crawling along with its claws
( expanded would stretch from the tip of
+ one to another at least twenty-five
feet. ~ J 4ffEfEI1 eN
II had heard of these giants, but I
had no idea that they attained this
enormous size. But when / arrived in
Japan I soon heard from the native
fishermen the most remarkable stories
and soon found a man who said he
could take me to spot where they
: .could 'bescaught. We started one at
i ternoon in one of the small native
sboats and skirted the bay for seven or
eight miles, finally arriving at the
mouth of small river. Here wewent
ashore and the Japanese soon rugged
up tent of rush, in which we were to
pass the night, as it was only after
dark that the sea spiders could be seen.
It was dusk when we reached the spot,
and for three mortal hours we sat there
speechless watching the shore. The
/. tide was on the ebb, and finally the
grasped me suddenly by the
! arm and pointed down the shore way,
and there soon made out curious,
Numbering object making its way up
out of the water. The moon, was ris-
ing, and at. every move the creature
glistened and vsparkled as if it was
/ drenched with molten silver. On it
came until finally / could make out the
]; outline of a gigantic crab that was un-
dertaking the uncrab-like operation Of
: leaving the water and taking to dry
land. visited until the animal stopped
and showed signs that it would go
NO higher, and then rushed out, max
! ing for the water so as to head it Off
/ had provided myself with a large
{ stick, and soon found that 1 should
have to use it, as the moment the huge
9 creature saw us it started for the water,
. crawling along sidewise and at no
mean rate of speed. 80 sf71 &5
: az placed myself in front of it, but
on the creature came, holding aloft its
two claws, each of which was ten feet
long, and by the time it reached me
!. stepped aside, and was rather in a
!, quandary, as wanted to secure it en-
tire. The Jap was talking and yelling
!, something which conld not under
, stand, and suddenly grasped one of the
, big claws. Seeing his game I grabbed
Y the other, and held on as well as we
4 could. and, would you believe, the
!, strength of the animal was such that
alswe could not stand still. We pulled in
rs opposite directions, however, and in
this way lifted the animal from the
la1ground but while we were holding on,
sthe crab, by a quick movement, threw
saof its large claws, as you have prob
ably seen small ones do, and over we
went headlong into the mud, each
!. holding claw, while the crab took a
! fresh start for the water We dropped
the claws and soon had it, and native
= rope quickly had it powerless, although
its struggles to escape and the strength
, displayed were marvellous that is, in a
:, crab. I found that the crabs came
upon the shore every night and wan
dered about. to feed, it is presumed, On
the muddy flats. Before morning we
caught another and smaller one that
. had . spread of about ten feet We
y have king crabs here, but these fellows
lsswere the kings of the crab family sure
enough. / took it to Japan and
! shipped it to New York in two boxes,
~ but, unfortunately, the one containing
y the claws was lost, and have only the
shell to tell the story. There are, how
} ever, several good specimens in this
q 4gas aaa. .wH4aAA hnAARve
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