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fifty paces broad, and three miles deep, and so close that they almost cover the ground. The rearguard follows three or four days after; a straggling undisciplined tribe, consisting of males and females, but not so vigorous as the former. The night is their chief time of proceeding; but if it rain by day, they do not fail to profit by the Occasion; and they continue to move forward in their slow uniform manner. When the sun shines hot upon the surface of the ground, they make a general halt, and wait till the cool of the evening. When terrified, they march back, in a confused disorderly manner, holding up their nippers, with which they sometimes tear off a piece of the skin, and then leave the weapon where they infflicted the wound. They even try to intimidate their enemies; for they often clatter their nippers together, as if to threaten those who disturb them. But though they thus strive to be formidable to man, they are much more so to each other ; for they are possessed of one most unsocial property, which is, that if any of them by accident is maimed in such a manner as to be incapable of proceeding, the rest fall upon and devour it on the spot, and then pursue their journey.

When, after a fatiguing march, and escaping a thousand dangers, (for they are sometimes three weeks in getting to the shore) they have arrived at their destined port, they prepare to cast their spawn. They have no sooner reached the shore, than they go to the edge of the water, and let the waves wash over their bodies two or three times. This seems only a preparation for bringing the spawn to maturity; for, without farther delay, they withdraw to seek a lodging upon.

land. In the mean time, the spawn grows larger, is excluded out of the body, and sticks to the barbs under the tail. This bunch is seen as big as a hen's egg, and exactly resembles the roes of herrings. In this state, they once more seek the shore, and shaking of their spawn into the water, leave accident to bring it to maturity., At this time whole shoals of hungry fish are at the shore, in expectation of this annual supply; the sea to a great distance is black with them; and about two thirds of the crabs eggs are immediately devoured by these rapacious invaders. The eggs that escape are hatched under the sand; and soon after, millions of these little crabs are seen quitting the shore, and slowly travelling up to the mountains. The old ones, however, are not so active to return; they have become so feeble and lean, that they can hardly creep along, and their flesh at this time changes its colour. Most of them, therefore, are obliged to continue in the flat parts of the country till they recover, making holes in the earth, which they cover at the mouth with leaves and dirt, that no air may enter. There they throw off their old shells, which they leave quite whole; the place where they opened on the belly being unseen. At that time they are quite naked, and almost without mction for six days together, when they become so fat as to be delicious food. They have then under. their stomachs four large white stones which gradually decrease in proportion as the shell hardens, and, when they come to perfection, are not to be found. It is at this time that the animals are seen slowly making their way back; which is com monly performed in six weeks.

When possessed of its retreats in the moun

tains, the land crab is impregnable; for, only subsisting upon vegetables, it seldom ventures out; and its habitation being in the most inaccessible places, it remains for a great part of the season in perfect security. It is only when impelled by the desire of bringing forth its young, and when compelled to descend into the flat country, that it is taken. At that time the natives wait for their descent in eager expectation, and destroy thousands; but, disregarding their bodies, they only seek for that small spawn which lies on each side of the stomach within the shell, of about the thickness of a man's thumb. They are much more valuable upon their return after they have cast their shells; for being covered with a skin resembling soft parchment, almost every part except the stomach may be eaten. They are taken in the holes, by feeling for them with an instrument, and are sought after by night, when on their journey, by flambeaux. The instant these animals perceive themselves attacked, they throw themselves on their backs, and with their claws pinch most terribly whatever they happen to fasten on. But the dexterous crab-catcher takes them by the hinder legs in such a manner that the nippers cannot touch them, and thus he throws them into his bag. Sometimes also they are caught when they take refuge in the bottoms of holes in rocks by the sea-side, by covering the mouth of the hole to prevent their getting out, and then soon after, the tide enters the hole and the animal is found, upon its ebbing, drowned in its retreat.

The historian of Nevis informs us, that they have a good spring and a short stream in that island, which afford them mud-fishes, generally

reckoned the richest fish they have; but, for his, part, he always thought the cavally, a sea-fish, the finest eating of any. This last is a very firm fish, weighs four or five pounds, and tastes not unlike a mackarel. They have likewise a peculiar sort of cockles, which are delicious at the full of the moon, and increase and decrease in bulk as well as goodness, just, as that luminary, seems to increase or decrease to our sight. The shells are of a triangular form, but not equilate rally so, two sides of them being each as long again as the short side; and all the three angles are rounded off or blunted. They are of a bright shining colour, like well-polished white marble, and are generally streaked very regularly with beautiful red or blue veins. The manner of taking them is this: A negro goes into one of the sandy bays up to his knees, where stooping down he takes up a basket of sand from the bottom, which he dips into the water till the sand is washed away, and the cockles are left behind. It is remarkable, that this sort of cockle is not to be found, at any other of the Leeward Caribbee islands; nay, they have been carried to St. Christopher's, and would not propagate there, though the nearest end of that island is within four or five miles of Nevis.

A method of fishing, or rather fish-hunting, practised in Nevis, and described by our author, seems particularly worthy our observation. When seven or eight gentlemen have an inclination for this diversion, they send their slaves to the woods to get some of the bark that grows upon the roots of a tree called dog-wood, which is next morn ing pounded very small, put into sacks, and carried to the rocky part of the coast, where it is

steeped till it be thoroughly soaked with the salt water, and then well squeezed by the negroes to get out the juice. This juice presently stains the sea with a reddish hue, and, being of a poisonous nature, within an hour's time makes the fishes,' such as old wives, rock-fish, welchmen, &e. so intoxicated as to swim on the surface of the water quite heedless of danger; when the negroes pur sue them, and either take them by swimming or diving after them, their masters standing on the rocks to see the pastime. This poison kills mil lions of the small fry; and it is supposed that it must likewise destroy the shell-fish that lie at the bottom, and are less qualified to escape its effects by moving into purer water. Besides, as they naturally die every year in considerable numbers, it is no wonder that in the hurricane months their shells are cast up in abundance on the rocky shore of the island. That they are so cast up is certain, but it seems their colours are not bright or beautiful, till they have lain for some time upon the shore to be dried and polished by the heat of the sun, which 'scorches off such moss or filth as at first sticks about them, and hinders the eye from perceiving these inimitable strokes of nature's pencil with which they are adorned.

After having mentioned several beautiful shells, of which he sent specimens to England, our author gives us another remarkable particular relating to the productions of the sea about Nevis. The lobsters there, exactly resemble the English ones in size, colour, and shape, except that their two large claws are not so big "in proportion to their bodies; but he had like to have lost his life by one circumstance attending them, which is this: such of them, it seems, a