The King Crab of the eastern seas grows sometimes to an enormous size, while the lance‐shaped spear with which he is furnished is used by the Malays as a warlike instrument. Then, for a contrast, there’s the little nut‐crab, with his queer little legs tucked up under his body, which rambling jack‐tars sometimes gather for their friends at home, under the idea that their shells, when cut and polished, will make handsome brooches and shirt‐pins. Major Lord tells a good story of a dry old salt of a quartermaster, on the Indian station, who “chanced one day, when on shore for a cruise, to become possessed of a goodly number of these lucky stones, as he called them, and by way of securing his treasures, placed them in an old silk handkerchief, and stowed them away, with a few dollars and sundry cakes of cavendish, in the corner of his chest. It so happened that some piratical shipmate, not proof against the allurements of honeydew and silver, but totally indifferent to natural history, seized his opportunity and spirited off the tobacco and money, but left the lucky‐stones behind. The next day, when our old friend came for his accustomed supply of the weed, he, to his horror, astonishment, and indignation, found the supposed pebbles in active motion, performing foot‐ races over his best jacket, the handkerchief spread open, and, alas! empty. ‘Well!’ exclaimed he; ‘blow me if this aint too much of the monkey! Why, look ye here, messmates! These here blessed stones have come to life, every man Jack of ’em. They’ve chawed up all my bacca, and spent every mag of my money! and now I’ll heave the beggars to Davy Jones’s locker. Overboard is where I means to pitch ’em.’ And so he did, no doubt to the intense gratification of the falsely‐accused crabs.” [Illustration: THE HERMIT CRAB (_Pagurus Bernhardus_).]