The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-06-14
CONCERNING CRABS.
An Interesting Chapter ON HhQ Habits OF
the Queer CreaturC1.

An Interesting Chapter on Hra Habits OF
the Queer CreaturC1.
Crabs can see but cannot hear: crabs
can remember and can communicates:
crabs are sensitive to any vibration of
the ground; crabs are inquisitive: crabs
are dOcile and crabs can smell.
Eight months of constant association
with crabs. eight months in which
many leisure and lonely hours were oc
cupied III watching and studying crabs
gave five men who lived on Chipperton
| Island for that period of time the OBJ
portunity to get on friendly. even ia
miliar, relations with the red crabs
that infest by millions that strange
equatorial coral isle. They were the
employees of a phosphate company. and
were preparing the cargo of schooner
in which they returned recently from
the island. They made the following
| observations: The crab can see. but he
| is near-sighted. At distance OF
| twenty-five feet he can observe "a man
| walking along the beach. but at that
distance Gle cannot see distinctly. for he
ambles after the man to satisfy his
enormous curiosity He cannot hear.
| Shouts or other noises. even close by
| the crab. have not the slightest effect
upon him. He pursues his even side
way. incOnSiderate alike of the harsh
| gutfaw or the rich song of the mans
voice. Yet of movement of a foot on
the sand, of the merest touch on the
ground, he has knowledge Immediately
and proceeds to explore the cause of
the vibration of his territory. A little
water poured from bucket upon the
sand is sufficient to call a convention Of
crabs from a circuit of many feet. The
explanation is that the crab is exceed
ingly sensitive to the merest vibration
of the ground from unaccustomed
| cause.
The crab is more curious than any
woman. One of the men stuck stake
upright on the beach. At least one of
every twelve of the crabs which passed
| that way laboriously climbed that stake
to the top and then awllwardly wriggled
down the other side. When the men
were building their houses from the
lumber they carried thither by schooner,
| the crabs crawled up the sides in such
numbers that they had to be swept
away so that the men could work A
derrick twenty-siX feet high was erected
for use in the occupation in which the
men were engaged. The morning after
1t was raised, the men found four in
quisitive crabs on the top bar seeing
what they could see
Crabs can smell. A piece of meat was
placed on the ground. The crabs on
4 the leeward side for long distance
gathered to a feast, while the crabs.
even those close to the meat, on the
| windward side, gave no attention to the
| banquet and continued their march in
| uninterrupted solemnlty.
The browning achievement in the
course of observation of crab life in a
| crab dominion is the discovery that
| crabs remember and communicates
These conclusions came from the eXper-
| fences of the men in keeping the crabs
from intruding upon the privacy of the
dwellings they built upon the fiat and
treeless plain. When they began their
work they were harassed almost to death
by the inquisitive shellish. After the
,abins were finished the crabs. unin-
vited, came in toinspect what was done.
To keep them out, the doors We're
Kept constantly closed, and sheets of
I in We're nailed along the threshold
Then a system of regular instruction of
the crab in the way he should go be-
gan. Boards We're placed around the
houses and every time crab set claw
in a board he was swept off by a broom.
In this education a broom was worn
out but the crabs were taught. After
daily, hourly, infinitely sweeping of
crabs from the boards, the crabs ceased
altogether their incursions upon the
planks. If board were laid down oh
the sand, no crab would even touch it.
Therefore the men say the crabs can
remember. Therefore they say that
crabs can communicate. 1t is a physi-
cal impossibility that every crab on the
island should have been swept off those
boards, yet no crab wiggled his way on
them after the system of severe educa-
ton was fully accomplished. Therefore
the swept crabs must have informed
the unswept crabs that boards were
not healthful places for them to visit.
How else could they know that boards
We're not for their promenade?-San
Francisco Examiner.
She Knew What She Was About. =