From a fisherman, whom I met on the shore, I obtained permission to occupy an empty hut till the next day. While seated on the trunk of a tree, which was lying on the beach at high-water mark, I observed that on the shore here, as well as along the coast, crabs of various sizes abounded; and, as I had to wait until my luggage was landed and carried to the hut, I amused myself by watching the operations of a small species, belonging to the genus _Gelasimus_ that was either making or enlarging its burrow in the sand. About once in every two minutes it came up to the surface with a quantity of sand enclosed in its left claw, which, by a sudden jerk, it ejected to the distance of about six inches, always taking care to vary the direction in which it was thrown, so as to prevent its accumulation in one place. Having a few small shells belonging to a species of _Turbo_ in one of my jacket pockets, I endeavoured to throw one of these into its hole, in order to see whether it would bring it up again or not; of the four that were thus thrown, one only entered the hole, the others remaining within a few inches of it. It was about five minutes before the animal again made its appearance, bringing with it the shell which had gone down, and carrying it to the distance of about a foot from its burrow, it there deposited it. Seeing the others lying near the mouth of the hole, it immediately carried them, one by one, to the place where the first had been laid down, and then returned to its former labour of carrying up sand. It was impossible not to conclude that the actions of this little creature, which holds so low a station in the chain of beings, were the result of reason, rather than of blind instinct by which the actions of the inferior animals are generally thought to be guided, for man himself, under the same circumstances, could not have acted with more judgment.