The Opelousas courier., 1890-09-27
/ CRUSTACEAN COLLECTION
an EXTRAORDINARY EXHIBITION
OF CRABS AND LoBsTERs.
aTrilobites' Twenty Millions of Year.
oId--A Forty Pound Lobster
The Big Cocoanut Crab.

a~TriIobites" Twenty Millions of YearA
OId--A Forty Pound Lobster
The Big Cocoanut Grab.
The most wonderful exhibition of crabs
and Holsters ever seen in this world win
be placed on permanent view in WASH
jurton as soon as the Smithsonian Instis
tute gets its new building. At present
The collection is stored away out Of sight,
for want of space to show it properly. III
this exhibition will be displayed for the
instruction of the nation members of the
crustacean family that were actually alive
during the earliest geological epoch
twenty millions of years ago.
These "trilobites, " as they are called,
we're contemporary with the earliest
creatures that ~livedupon the earth. They
are taken out of the rock to-day as per-
feet as when they were inelosed in the
shelly mud 200, 900 centuries ago; the
yery facets of their eyes are IS distinct as
ID life. If you like you may find any
number Of their direct descendants in the
horseshoe crabs on the sea beach. The
horseshoe crabs, indeed, may fairly be
called the Oldest creature in the world,
being but a slightly modified trilobite,
and thus representing the very most an
Gent family that anything is known
about. In comparatively modern times
only 18, 900. 900 years ago-some crus-
taceans attained great size. Frogs in
those days used to grow as big as men
are now, and thought nothing of hopping
two or three blocks distance Nat one
lump; it was the age of things gigantic,
and a Iobster-like creature, six feet in
length, called the a~pterygotus, = prowled
the watery shadows then in search of
prey.
1t is not so very many years now since
Holsters were captured weighing as much
as forty pounds apiece. There is one
such in the Smithsonian collection, three
feet long in the body and with claws big
and strong enough to crush your clenched
fst. Unfortunately the business of lob
sters has been carried on for a century or
80 past with so much eagerness that all
the big ones pretty nearly have been taken
and eaten.
To find a giant crustacean to-day you
must go to the eastern shore of Asia,
where disports himself the 0
Japanese crab, which has claws which
spread twelve feet. Even the crabs of
Rider Haggard's fancy did not attain the
dimensions of this Asiatic realty. y One
of the most extraordinary of the Smith
aonian's specimens is ) ~.scocoanut crab"
-a tremendously powerful looking crea-
ture, SO big that when tightly folded up
II will fill q four-gallon glass jar. This
Ii the crab that climbs the cocoanut tree,
and after plucking the fruit tears off the
outer husk with its mighty claws and
then knocks in the shell in one of the
sseyes," subsequently digging out the
meat with the long and narrow pair of
lincers provided by nature for this pur-
pose. This ~cocoanut crab inhabits the
stands Of the Indian ocean. It accumu-
aates surprising quantities of the picked
hbers of the cocoanut, which il uses as a
bed; the flesh is very good 10 eat, and
under its tail is d mass of fat which some
Zines Fields as much ais D quart Of hmpid
oil. Among other strange crabs in the
smithsonian collection is d smaller va
Nety Of this same species which lives in
burrow at the root of q fruit tree.
Then there is the stpainted crab of the
West Indies, which is a land animal; it
used to exist there in countless numbers,
and INDUCED annually in q migration to
The sea coast, moving always in q compact
army. During such migrations they were
caught in great numbers and so have be-
come almost extinct. Acrab from the
Barbados is remarkable for its swiftness
iii running, which has given it the name
Of the sshorseman crab The stdorippe''
81 d species Of crab quite plentiful onthe
shores of the Adriatic, which has two
legs On its back great Inconvenience,
since, il turned bottom side up, it can
run just as well that way.
One remarkable crab in the Smithso-
MAN collection is entirely covered with
what looks like whitish moss, but is in
reality something between the vegetable
aud the animal. All crabs of that va
fiety have a coat of this sort to render
them indistinguishable by their enemies
ind unrecognizable By their prey. An
other kind Of crab is always covered en-
tirely with growing sponge, save only
his eyes, antenn@ and the tips OF his
snlaws. Hc hides la c~revices where
sponge grows among the rocks, and be-
comes As much like them as he knows
hoW. Al crab from the Pacific coast is
Invariably found with sea anennones
growing all over his back and legs.
Another from the same region has large
tubes with which it sucks water into Its
luags BY way Of breathing. Still an
other California crab has q very neatly
madc snuff-box underneath its body for
holding eggs, which closes with 8 snap
lasteaisg Just like 9 real snuf-box. 4
crab with a long beak and legs thai
look like straws ID also from the "a
ciRc.
One of the fercest crabs known i
plentiful Oh the coast Of South America.
~ ii also called tile crock crab and hides
~ crevices among stones. It il captured
generally by dropping d hook on the eng
Of d string into It's lair, when II will selzs
The hook In anger and permit itself TO By
hauled ont BY its own grip, which Is q
ssrong that the claw viii still bite pow
erfully after It has been pulled of frorsa
the animal. Al funny crab Is the mess
nate which one finds In oysters; Il
does not harm. the bivalye, but mereIB
llvssin the shell with it and feeds uposl
whatever the oyster gets to eat.-0hsca9
Times.