The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-11-01

"A reporter who happened INTO the
Museum of Natural History in New
York the other day ran across natural
lst who was examining a curious object.
That's a crab," said he, lifting an
enormous something that might have
served as shell for large sized turtle,
and one OF the largest known. This is
only the top shell; the legs were un-
fortunately lost, and If you are aston
lshed at this you will probably think /
am drawing on my imagination when |
say that the crab when alive was twenty
two feet across"
The SHELL was curious object
rough, corrugated. of Il light yellow hue,
and about two feet across. The eye
stalks We're two inches in height, and be-
tween them extended upward long,
sharp spine that would have been aifor-
midable weapon if the giant was dis
posed to use it.
IF you could see one of these fellows
alive" continued the naturalist, "and
under the circumstances that did, you
wouldn't forget it. | caught this fellow
myself. They are found in Japan and
known as rock or spider crabs. The
shell of the large ones attains length
OF about two feet and resembles a moss
covered rock. From it branch the legs,
that are trul! enormous, and, as [ have
said, this one when crawling along with
Its claws expanded would stretch from
the tip of one to another at least twenty
two feet.
Il had heard of these giants, but |
had no idea that they attained this
enormous size. But when / arrived in
Japan | sool heard from the n tive
| fishermen the most remarkable stories
| and soon found d man who said he
could take me to q spot where they
could be caught. We started one aft
ernoon in one of the small native
boats and skrted the bay for seven or
| eight miles, finally arriving at the
mouth of a small river. Here we went
ashore and the Japanese soon rugged
up tent of ush, in which we were to
pass the night, as it was only after dark
| that the sea spiders could be seen. 1t
was dusk when we reached the spot,
and for three mortal hours we sat
there specifies watching the shore.
| The tide was on the ebb, and finally the
fisherman grssped me suddenly by the
arm and pointed down the shore a way,
and there | soon made out curious,
numbering object making its way up
out of the water. The moon was rising,
and at every move the creature ghs-
tened and sparkled as if it was drenched
with molten silver. On it came until
| finally | could make out the outline of
a gigantic crab that was undertaking
the uncrab-like operation OF leav-
| ing the water and taking to
dry land. | waited until the animal
stopped and showed signs that it would
go no higher, and then rushed out,
making for the water so as to head it off.
had provided myself with a large
stick. and soon found that I 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.
Il placed myself in front of it, but on
the creature cane, holding aloft its two
claws, each of which was ten feet long,
and by the time it reached me / stepped
aside, and was ,ather in a quandary, as
L 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 | grabbed the other, and held
on as well as [ could, and, would on
believe, the strength of the animal was
| such that we could not stand still We
pulled in opposite directions, however,
and in this wav lifted the animal
from the ground; but while we were
holding on, 5he crab, by quick move
ment, 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 claw ard soon had it, and native
| rope quickl! had it powerless, although
its struggle, to escape and the strength
| displayed were marvelous-that is in a
crab. [ found that the crabs came up
on the shore 'very night and wandered
about to FEED, 1t is presumed on the
muddy flats. Before morning we caught
another and smaller one that had a
| spread of aboui ten feet. We have king
crabs here, bit these fellows were the
kings Of the cab family sure enough. l
took it to japan and shipped it to New
| York IN two boxes, but, unfortunately,
the one containing the claws was lost,
and I have nly the shell to tell the
story. There ae. however. several good
| specimens In this country. Harvard
| College has air specimen, but not as
large as these 1have mentioned. What
are they good f,r2 Well in Japan they
| are eaten inst at we eat crabs here. The
| great claws arethe only really valuable
parts, and onecrab will produce meat
| enough to suppl Y a whole family. Then,
again, the SHELLS broken up and made
into curious medicine taken by the
natives, and, 3uriously enough, they
also make a Medicine out of a fossil
crab that they get in the back country.
| Though this crab is the largest, it is
not as powerful, as the famous palm-tree
crab of the Islands south of Japan and
in the Indian Archipelago. The crab is
called the birgos and is a relative of the
hermit crab, oly 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 birpos is not a water crab,
living entirely upon land and going
down to the sea once a day, it is said,
for the purpose of moistening its gills.
They are generally found in the near
proximity of palm trees, upon the fruit
of which they I've, and their burrows
are generally phced at the foot of the
trees. To give You an idea of the
amount of cocoauts that the creatures
eat, the Masla7 natives came about
twice year to dig up their holes to
get the eocoanu husks that the crabs
took in to maketheir nests of. Hun
dreds of pounds we're thus obtained and
made into mats. beds, and many other
articles of household use. In appear
ance the birgos ws extremely repulsive.
They were about s big as a mans head,
if 1t vas very bisman and he had big
head; the claws we're heavy, short, col
ored red, and covered with sharp points,
so tina. when the claws were struck to-
gether, as they we're when the animals
were enraged, thae was loud, clacking
sound that coult be heard quite dis
tance. The first time ] ever saw one