Land crabs[145] were numerous, as were also the shells of the genera _Cytherea_, _Tellina_, _Mactra_, _Conus_, _Oliva_, _Cypræa_, _Harpa_, _Dolium_, _Murex_, _Turbo_, _Nerita_, and _Dentalium_; but although this was an indication of the number about the coast, yet but very few were procured in which the living animals were found. Among these was a number of the _Venus_, and small species of _Voluta_: the latter buried themselves with rapidity in the sand; the natives call them “Dunkin.” Almost buried in a deep black mud, among which the roots of mangrove trees abounded, the trees having been cut down, I found a number of white bodies growing from a piece of rotten wood, and being each about an inch in length,[146] and three-eighths of an inch in breadth, containing a watery fluid, called “Sepur” by the natives; they were not, however, eaten or used for any purpose by them. I preserved several specimens in spirits. A great number of the _Pagurii_, hermit or soldier crabs, of different sizes, were running about the beach; two large specimens, that I found, had each taken possession of the _Dolium perdix_, or partridge shell, to which they were as firmly attached as if in their natural habitation. The crustaceous portion of these animals is of a beautiful lilac colour, the softer parts yellow, and the antennæ of a dark red colour; the natives call them by the general name of “Sepo;” the smaller kind inhabit _Murices_, _Trochi_, _Neritæ_, _Helices_, _Lymneæ_, _Cerethii_, and other univalve shells. In some instances I saw large shells of _Harpa_, &c., inhabited by very small animals of this kind, moving their heavy and cumbrous dwelling slowly and with difficulty; there were some of a red, and others of a sea-green colour, but the larger were invariably of a beautiful lilac. May not this change of colour depend upon their age? The _Pagurii_ feed upon dead animals, fish, and all kinds of offal, as well as vegetable matter, such as skins of plantains, remains of cocoa nuts, fruits, &c. I have often observed a number of these creatures of various sizes congregated about a dead and putrid fish, and it is ludicrous, on disturbing them in the midst of their feast, to see them marching away, jumbling and overturning one another in the hurry, causing a clattering noise to proceed from the collision of their burrowed coverings; and should they not be able to escape capture they draw themselves closely into the shell, closing the aperture so firmly, by crossing the claws over the entrance, as to render it impossible to extract them without breaking the shell to pieces. Thus secured, they remain immoveable and apparently dead, and may be kicked or thrown about, without giving any indications of life; but danger passed, they emerge partly from the shell as before, and move briskly away. The natives use them occasionally, but rarely, as food.