The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-07-18
TWENTY-FO0T CRABS.
Model Crustacean Romanees from the West
Coast.
[San Francisco cau. j

[San Francisco Call
San Francisco possesses two of the
largest crabs in the country. One is in
the collection of Woodwsrd's Gardens,
and the other is strong card for neigh
boring museum" that pictures the unfor-
tuuate decapod as overturning boat and
embroiliug crew of sailors in universal
ruin. The crab itself is about twelve or
| thirteen feet across from tip of one out
spread claw to that of the other, and pre-
sents truly formidable appearance, aad
| ID remarkably fine specinen. The Wood
ward crab is some " hat smaller, but equally
striking. A specimen in the Museum Of
Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. and
large carapace or shell in the Museum
Of Natural History, Central Park, New
| York, are the only others that know Of
| in this country.
The thirteen-foot crab alluded to would
astonish the average crabber, but speci-
mems Of these spiders of the sea have been
caught in japanese waters, to which they
are indigenous, that spread from the tip
| of one claw to that of the other twenty
| two feet. A friend of mine who has
caught the great crabs in japanese waters
| tells me that they have curious habit of
leaving the water and coming out upon
| the beach at night to feed.
The crab, whose brains and minor parts
are under the same roof, is not con-
sidered the mast intelligent of beings, yet
have deserved them adopt precautionary
measures that showed certain apprecia-
| ton of the law Of cause and effect. In
| the tank that l had under observation
were number of what are popularity
| termed spider crabs, queer fellows, that
resembled spiders in their long attenua.
ted legs, while the body part was almost
exact in its mimicry of a rock. The
crabs have wide range, and some
| species are found in the rocks off
the Golden Gates When the crabs were
brought to me they were oyergrown with
moss and weeds of various kinds, so that
| il was quite impossible to see their backs,
| and it might have been assumed that,
being very sluggish, the weeds had grown
on them while taking siesta; but this
| was not the case. Before placing the
victims to popular science in the tank,
they were thoroughly scrubbed and
scraped with stiff brush until not an
atom of alg@ remained, and in this condi-
! ton they were dropped into the tank, and
Immediately became conspicuous objects
on the bottom. That they were aware of
this was Immediately evident, as their
first thought was concealment, which was
effected in an extremely novel manner.
By hiding in the sand or rocks, you will
say. Net at all; the crabs had plan far
more satisfactory, which was to assume
the complete disguise of moss covered
rock; and this they did by rapidly snap
ping of bits of weed from the rocks with
their claws, then placing the severed por-
ton to their mouths, where evidently
some gelatinous substance was affixed,
and then with an over-the-head motion
the bit was raised aloft and the part
pressed upon the crabs back; then an
other piece was plucked, and another,
until in less than an hour nearly all the
imprisoned crabs had planted upon their
backs mimic forest of weeds, and were
almost entirely concealed; and when their
claws were drawn in, they we're not to be
| distinguished from the surrounding stones.
This may be instinct, but the crab that
originally invented it had certain amount
of intelligence to draw upon slowed away
some where under its hard shell.
| Take your MONDAY siesta in a hammock par.
| chased from Wood & Menagh. The cheapest place
| in Jersey City to PURCHASE one.