Since the foregoing was written, I have again been fortunate enough to have ocular demonstration of the phenomenon of exuviation, as occurring in a _Cancer Pagurus_, about as large as a moderate-sized walnut. While watching this crab, it flashed across my mind that it would be a happy circumstance if by any means _I could arrest the process then going on before my eyes, while it was yet only half completed_, in order that others might also be enabled to witness the marvellous act of exuviation. But how to carry out this scheme was the rub. I knew that-- 'If 'twere done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.' One minute passed,--two minutes flew by;--the crab would speedily complete his labours; still was I perplexed. To plump it into fresh water would, I knew, be fatal to the animal, but not in such a speedy manner as was desirable. Boiling water next suggested itself, and doubtless would have answered the purpose effectually, had a supply been near at hand at the time, but such was not the case. I then thought of _spirits_. Ah! capital idea.... Before the third minute had passed, I might be seen to rush frantically to the sideboard, pour _something_ into a glass, then dart back to the tank, dive down my trembling hand, bring up the poor unfortunate crab, and drop it into a fatal pool of pure "Glenlivet." The animal appeared to die quickly, and was next day transferred to a vessel filled with Mythilated spirits. As it luckily turned out, the whisky answered the intended purpose remarkably well. The preparation in question is, as far as I can discover, _unique_; at least I have neither read nor heard of another such existing in any private or public museum in the kingdom.[6] [6] A drawing of this crab will be found on Plate 3. It shows at a glance the increase that instantaneously takes place in the size of the crab after the act of exuviation is performed, the portion exuded being on a scale considerably larger than the old covering, which, however, is capacious enough to hold that half of the animal that had not effected its deliverance at the moment when the novel arrestment was so unceremoniously served. The fourth and fifth pair of legs are free, while the eyes and antennæ are also drawn out of their sheaths. (This is not very evident now, but such is really the fact, I having distinctly seen those organs in motion when the animal was in the living state.) The _chelæ_, or large claws, being still undetached, serve to bind the crab to its old integument, and thus enable the act of exuviation, or one phase of it at least, to be distinctly apparent.