The Opelousas courier., 1885-08-08
THE LOBSTER AND, CRAB.
Hardly any Body to Support.

Hardly any Body to Support
ThesmaH logs Seen anchored In ~
neighborhood 81 He'll Gate at certain.
seasons of the year are buoys for "lob-
ster potts." SO Prof. Bickmore told the
elasssof public school teachers in alec
ture, delivered at the American Muse
UNI Of Natural History in New York.
The lobster pots,' he said, are made
of Stats in a semi cylinderical shape,
with a fat bottom, in which is an orr
fee large enough to admit a lobster.
The animal having been tempted IN,
has not the. requisite amount Of sense,
as a general rule, to find its way out.
The appendages Of the lobster werere-
marked upon as peculiarly adapted to
its natural wants. aThetwo claws or
pincers differ the one from the other,
a fact which always gives them an un-
calmly appearance. One of the claws
has a series of grinders and is used as
a mill to crush shel1-ish and other
hard substances, while that on the op-
positesideis provided with asharp edge
which is used in cutting up fish and
similar substances. The lobster pro-
pels itself by means Of thin plates at
tached tosthe body which it uses as
oars. It's eggs are attached to the un-
der side of the body and carried about,
and to protect them from rocky bot
toms the tail of the animal is doubled
up under it. completelycoyering them.
There were said to be Holsters in the
Mediterranean which had no claws.
The rate at which the animal in this
country is disappearing was deprec tied
by the speaker. '.In my boyhood,"
said he, I'VE used to gather any guam
tity of them between high and low
water mark ON the coast of Maine, and
they were much larger than those we
see now, too. AT the present time
theywere almost entirely taken from
deep water, and at the present rate of
decrease viii shortly become curiosi-
to be found only in the museums,
The crab is a higher order of animal
than the lobster, the Professor said,
and he described number of different
classes of the species. The fiddler
crab was so called from the peculiar
shape and motion of its claw. It has
a set of grinding teethin the anterior
portion Of its stomach, and a grinding
movement is kept up almost continu-
ously. The eye Of the crab was very
peculiar. consisting of series of tubes
bound together. each tube represent
ing a single S ! He sees singiy by
combining the images in his mind af-
ter the manner of a mosaic. The long
feelers of the crab are designed for
reaching into the crevices of the rocks
after its prey. The giant of all crabs
is found in the bay of Jeddo. Its legs
are IL feet long and It scarcely has
body enough to hold them together.
The hermit crab is a queer sort of an
imal. which takes upits habitation in
shells vacated by other animals. The
Professor said that if a hermit crab
was placed in a tub of water with sew
eral shells it would examine them all,
and then select that best adapted to
its comfort If two or three crabs
were put among the same shells they
would often fight for the best shell.
The hermit often travelled about in
conjunction with a polyp al a means
of protection from the octopus. The
polyp did the fighting, while the her.
NIT carried him about and collected
food for both.
A crab and q cocoanut were held up
by the Professor before his audience.
The crab, he said, was a palm crab and
lived incoeoannt groves. e tears off
the husk with its claws, hammers
through the shell, and then lifts out
the meat in chunks with its pincers.
The palm crab has q special breath
ing apparatus which enables it TO
live out of water. The most pecu-
liar of all the crabs was a certain
species which lives in the mountains.
The animals keep well out of the
way during the daytime, but they
are fond Of making moonlight excur-
sions in little groups to wet their
gills in water. They not infrequeDt-
" stop at vegetable gardens in their
marches, and the damage they do
make the farmers their enemies.
The barnacle was said to be of the
same species as the lobster and the
crab.
Seglt Rfves.
An imaginary stream up which a
defeated candidate is supposed to be
sent. and whence he is net expected to