Let us turn from these investigations, fascinating as they are, to
examine the ways and means of two or three other creatures, familiar
enough to us who habitually explore the sea-margin. I allude to
certain members of the great class CRUSTACEA, not Crabs nor Lobsters
exactly, but called so by courtesy, something in fact between both. My
dredger’s hauls are always sure to contain, creeping in the tangled
thickets of _Laomedea_, _Antennularia_, and other of the flexible
Polyps, or playing at bo-peep from the interstices of the _Serpula_
masses,--numerous specimens of a tiny Crab,[91] with a circular flat
shell, no bigger than a split-pea, large wide claws, and very long
antennæ, like two hairs. They are of various colours, sometimes pure
white, sometimes chocolate-brown, and often clouded with different
hues. Minute as they are, they are not despised by great fishes; for
the heavy-sided, clumsy-headed cods, that occupy so large an area on
the fishmonger’s slab, are often found to have their stomachs packed
full with these little Crabs; which doubtless the glutton picks off one
by one, enjoying the taste of the savoury atom as it rolls over his fat
fleshy tongue.