On these occasions the zoologist can pursue his researches at the shore, at a distance beyond the usual tidal line. Numerous boulders and rock-pools, during many days covered by the sea, being then laid bare and exposed to his eager, searching hands and eyes, he is frequently able to discover many rare objects, or, at least, common ones revelling in almost giant-like proportions, and wonderful profusion. The Soldier or Hermit-Crabs (to an account of whom we intend to devote this chapter), offer a most remarkable proof of this. Occupying the centre of a rocky excavation, I have repeatedly found several dozen of these comical creatures, each inhabiting the cast-off shell of a defunct Whelk (_Buccinum undatum_), which measured not less than five or six inches in length. To my surprise these aldermanic crustaceans possessed no companions of a smaller growth; while at a few yards nearer shore, as many shells would be found congregated together as in the more distant pool,--the largest, however, being no bigger than a damson, while the smallest might be compared to an infantile pea, or cherry-stone. I cannot explain this appearance otherwise, than by supposing that the _Anomoura_ become prouder, or, it may be, more cunning, as they grow older, and, having arrived at their full development, they fit themselves with their final suit; thereafter, in a spirit of aristocratic exclusiveness, they retire to fashionable subaqueous residences, distant as far as possible from the homes of the _canaille_, who inhabit the common, littoral boundaries of the shore. The peculiarity, to which I alluded, of the _Anomoura_ occupying shells that have formerly belonged to other animals, is so strange that some writers have not hesitated to express doubt upon the subject. This denial of a fact, which can so readily be proved, is one of the 'curiosities of literature.' Swammerdam, a Dutch naturalist contemptuously observes, 'What an idle fable that is which is established even among those who study shell-fishes, when they show some kind of the crab kind in their museums, adding at the same time, that they pass from one shell to another, devour the animals that lived in those shells, and keep them for their own habitations. They dignify them with the high-sounding names, and additions, as Soldiers, Hermits, and the like; and thus, having no experience, they commit gross errors, and deceive themselves, as well as others, with their idle imaginations.'