The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-02-14
THE KING OF CRABS.
The Immense Creature Found in
Japan.
Meat Enough From One to Supply Whole
Family-Crabs That Climb Trees
Their Enormous Strength.

A reporter who happened into the
Museum of Natural History in New
York the other day ran across a natu-
ralist who was examining curious OBJ
ject.
''That's crab," said he, lifting an
enormous something that might have
served as 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 1 say that the crab
when alive was twenty-five feet across. y
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 extended upward a
long, sharp spine that would have been
a formidable, weapon if the giant was
disposed to use it..
eff you could see one of these fell
lows alive" continued the naturalist,
land under the circumstances that l
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 at
tains length of about two feet and re-
sembles q moss-coyered rock. From
it branch the legs, that are truly enor-
nous, and as | have said, this 'one
Hryha oil
expanded would stretch from the tip OF
one to another at least twenty-five
feet.
81 had heard of these giants, but I
had no idea that they attained this
enormous size. But when / arrived in
Japan l soon heard from the native
fishermen the most remarkable stories
and soon found man who said he
could take me to spot where they
could be caught. We started one af-
ternoon in one of the small native
boats and skirted the bay for seven OF
eight miles, finally arriving at the
mouth of small river. Here we went
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.
1t 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
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
out of the water. The moon was ris-
ing, and at every move the creature
glistened and sparkled as if it was
drenehed with molten silver On il
came until finally l could make out the
outline of q gigantic crab that was I'M
dertaking the uncrab-like operation OF
leaving the water and taking to dry
land. / waited until the animal stopped
and showed signs that it would 90
no higher, and then rushed out; max
ing for the water so as to head it off.
I had provided myself with "a large
stick, and soon found that T. should
have to use it, as the moment the huge
creature saw us it startedfor the water.
crawling along sidewise and at no
mean rate of speed. ~"
Il 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-
tree The Jap was talking and yelling
something which / conld not under
stand, and suddenly grasped one, the
big claws Seeing his game Isgrabbed
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,
- > !, by quick movement, threw
.;rge 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, althoug h
its struggles to escape and the strength
displayed We're maryelous-that is, in a
crab. | found that the crabs came
upon the shore every night and wan,
dered about to feed, it is presumed, OF
The muddy flats. Before morning we