The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-12-17

large stick and soon found that L should
have to use it, as the moment the huge
creature saw us it started for the water,
crawling along sidewise and at no mean
rate of speed.
81 placed myself in front of it, but on
the creature came, holding aloof its two
claws, each of which was ten feet long,
and by the time it reached me l stepped
aside and was in rather a quandary, as
| wanted to secure it entire. The Jap
was talking and yelling something that
/ could not understand and suddenly
grasped one of the big claws. Seeing
his game grasped the other, and held
on as we'll as we could, and would you
believe the strength of the animal was
such that we could not stand still. We
pulled in opposite directions, however,
and in this way lifted the animal from
the ground; but while we were holding
on, the crab, by quick movement,
threw off its large claws, as you have
probably seen small ones do, and over
we went headlong into the mud, each
holding a 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. / found that the crabs came upon
the shore every night and wandered
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 have king
crabs here, but these fellows were the
kings of the crab family sure enough.
i took it to Japan and shipped it to New
York in two boxes, but, unfortunately,
the one containing the claws was lost
and | have only the shell to tell the sto-
ry. There are, however, several good
/ specimens in this country. Harvard col
lege has fair specimen, but not as large
as these | have mentioned. What are
they good for? Well, in Japan they are
eaten just as we eat crabs here. The
great claws are the only really valuable
parts, and one crab will produce meat
! enough to supply whole family. Then,
again, the shell is broken up and made
into curious medicine taken by the ma
i tives, and, curiously enough, they also
make medicine out Of fossil crab tha
they get in the back country
ttThougll this crab is the largest, it Is
not as powerful as the famous palm tree
crab of the islands of south Japan and in
the Indian archipelago. The crab is
called the birgos and is "a relative of the
hermit crab, only it has no shell, the
plates on the abdomen being extremely
hard and effectively taking the place of
the shell that is worn by others of the
kind. The birgos is not water crab,
living entirely upon land and going down
to sea once a day, it is said, for the pur-
pose of moistening its gills. They are
generally found in the near proximity
of palm trees, upon the fruit of which
they live, and their burroughs are gen
orally placed at the foot of the trees. To
give you an ideal of the amount of cocoa
nuts that the creatures eat, the Malay
natives came about twice a year and
dug up their holes to get the cocoanut
husks that the crabs took in to make
their nests of. Hundreds of pounds were
thus obtained and made into mats, beds
and many other articles of household
luse. In appearance the birgos was ex-
| tremely repulsive. They were about as
big as mans head, if it was very big
| man and he had very big head; the
| claws were heavy, short, colored red and
| covered with sharp points, SO that when
! the claws were stuck together, as they
were when the animals were enraged,
there was a loud clacking sound that
could be heard quite distance. The
| first time | ever saw one was at the
| Spice Islands. After dinner one day
the German consul asked me if | didn't
want to see a Spice Island pig. I said
YES and he led me out back of the hotel
and there, in a wooden enclosure, were
two of the largest of these crabs, eating
rice out of trough, actually being fat
tened for the market like hogs. We af-
terwards had them served and / found
deviled birgos very good. sf
''The most remarkable feature about
these crabs was their enormous strength.
| One was placed in an ordinary tin crack
er box, where there was no opportunity
of taking hold; but the next morning
the box was found completely punctured
with holes, actually bitten through by
the sharp biting claws of the crab, and
in another confined in the same way the
top of the box was fairly twisted off.
Having so much muscular power, ma
tives naturally approach them with
some caution in attempting their cap
ture | was informed that on one occa-
sion party went out to place some
what famous for them, and, arriving at
night, went into camp with the expecta-
ton Of trying the crabs the next day.
But during the night the party was
awakened by the most terrific screams,
and rushing into the wood near at hand
with rushlights they found one of the
natives swinging partly from the huge
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