Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1884-11-02
THE KING or CRABS.
The immense Creature That the
Japanese Eat.
The Capture Made at aight---A Desperate
Struggle on the Seashore---Cfabs
That Climb Trees.
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Z
scum of Natural History in New York the
other day, ran across naturalist who wa
examining curious object.
"Thatsa crab" said he. lifting an enor
nous something that might have served a
shell for large-sized turtle, land one o
the largest known That is only the :oT
shell; the legs were unfortunately lost, and
if you are astonished at this YOU will proba'
oily think that i am drawing on my imagin'
alton when say that the crab when alive
was twenty-five feet across.
The shell was curious object-rough
corrugated, Of light yellow hue and about
two feet across. The eye-stalks were two
inches in height and between them extend.
ed upward long, sharp spine that would
have been formidable weapon il the giant
was disposed 70 use it.
"If you could see one Of these fellows
alive" continued the naturalist, land under
the circumstances that did. you wouldn't
forget it. | caught this fellow myself.
They are found in Japan aud known as rock
or spider crabs The shell OF the large ones
attains length of about two feet, and re-
sembles moss-covercd rock. From it
branch the legs, that are truly 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-five feet.
Tho Giant Crab of Japan.
IL had heard Of these giants, but ] had
10 idea that they attained this enormous
size. But when arrived in Japan | soon
heard from the native fishermen the most
remarkable stories and soon found q man
who said he could takeme to spot where
/ they could be caught. We started one
afternoon in one Of the small native boats
and skirted the bay for seven or eight miles,
finally arriving at the mouth of a small
river Here we went ashore and the Jap
anese soon rugged up a tent OF rush, in which
to pass the night, as 1t 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 speeches..
watching the shore The tide was on the
! ebb and finally the fisherman grasped me
| suddenly by the arm and pointed down the
shore way, and there soon made out
curious, numbering object making its way
up oat OF the water The moon was rising
and at every move the creature gksteHed
and sparkled as if it was drenched with
molten silver. On it came, until finally |
corld make out the outline of a gigantic
crab that was undertaking the uncrab-like
operation Of leaving the water and taking to
| dry land. | waited until the animal stop
ped 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 large stick and soon found
\ that should have TO use ii, rs the moment
I the huge creature saw Us it started for the
water. crawling along sideways and at no
mean rate OF speed
! Catching the Monster.
II 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 sside aud was
in rather 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 | grabbed the other and
| held on as well 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 a
| quick movement, threw off its large claws,
as you have probable seen small ones do,
and over we went headlong into the mud,
each holding q claw, while the crab took q
fresh Start for the water. We dropped the
claws and soon had it, and native rope
soon had it powerless, although its struggles
to escape and the strength displayed were
marvellous, that is, in g crab. | found that
the crabs came upon the shore avery night
and wandered about to feed it is presumed,
on the muddy Hats. Before morning we
caught another aud smaller one that had a
spread OF about ten feet We have king
crabs here, bat these fellows were 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 contain
ing the claws was lost, and have only the
shelf to tell the story. There are. however,
several good specimens in this country.
Harvard College has fair specimen, but
not as large as these | have mentioned.
What are they good for? Well, in Japan
they are eaten Just Us VIC eat crabs here,
The great claws are the only really valuable
pssts. and one crab will produce meat
enough to supply whole family. Then,
again. the shell is broken up and made into
a curious medicine taken By the nati'eS,
and. curiouslY enough, they also make q
medicine out of a fossil crab that they gel
in the back country.
A Treeclimber.
Though this crab is the largest, it is no
as powerful as the famous palm tree cral
of the islands south of Japan and in the In
dian Archipelago. The crab is called tht
birgos and it is relative of the hermi
crab, only it has no shell, the plates on thu
abdomen being extremely hard, and ef
feetiyely taking the place Of the shell that i
worn by others of the kind. The birgos i
not water crab, living entirely upon thu
land and going down to the sea once day
it is said, for the purpose of moistening it
gills. They are generally found in tn,
near proximity Of palm trees, upon the frui
of which they live, and their burrows are
generally placed at the foot of the trees
To give you an idea of the amount of cocoa
nuts that the creatures eat the Malay NATIVES
came about twice year and dug up thei
holes to get the cocoanut husks that tn
crabs took in to make their nests Of. Hun
dreds Of pounds were thus obtained ant
made into mats, beds and many othe
articles of household use. In appearance
the bigos was extremely repulsiye. The.
were about as big as mans head, if it wa!
very big man and he had very big head
the claws were heavy, short, colored rex
and covered with sharp points, so tina
when the claws>were stuck together, as the
were when the animals were enraged Their
was a loud, clacking sound that could b
heard quite distance. The FIRST time !
ever saw one was at the Spice Island,
After dinner, one day. the German ConsuI
asked me If didn't TSnt to see Spic
Island pig said yes, and he led me Oh
4 II .6A ho2al end 1hara IN yvOn1a,