The little specimens before us appear to belong to _Ebalia Bryerii_.
It is porcellaneous white, tinged with pale scarlet. The little feet
are painted scarlet on a white ground, especially the swollen-jointed
claws, which are very gay, and under a lens show a marbled pattern
of rich scarlet. This little Crab has an unique appearance, very
attractive. Its motions are quick and sudden, mostly lateral, when
alarmed; but it is habitually sluggish. Sometimes it appears to sham
death; for if pushed, it at first tries to escape by running; but if
the annoyance continues, it stiffens its limbs, and allows itself to be
pushed without resistance; and when laid on its back in the water, will
lie motionless for a minute or more, then suddenly turn over and crawl
away.
Hosts of other things we capture in this summary sweeping of the
sea-bottom, and by the time we have drifted down towards the Orestone,
till we are close enough to make out the noble leaves of the
tree-mallows that grow out of its rocky heights, we have accumulated a
marvellous store,--almost enough, indeed, to set up a little provincial
museum. Brittle-stars and urchins; cucumbers great and small; bivalve
and univalve mollusks; swollen ascidians, smooth and warty; active,
shuffling, sucking fishes; heaps of mossy _Bryozoa_; long bristling
tufts of Hydroid zoophytes; naked worms, twining and writhing amidst
the mass, gleaming in purple and pearl; sea-mice “armed in gold,”
like Virgil’s Orion; tangled masses of Serpula-pipes, every one
with its scarlet-crowned tenant; these, and multitudes of creatures
besides, come up from the teeming sea-floor, and all at once claim our
bewildered attention. And there is not one of the host that is not
worthy of it; not one that would not be an eloquent witness of its
Creator’s glory; but we must for the present neglect them all (not
without hope of another meeting with some of them at least), in order
to devote a few moments to one group of remarkable interest.
It is that unaccountable association of diverse and unrelated
creatures, which, if we had not repeatedly seen it, we should not
believe; the companionship of the Hermit-crab with the beautiful
Cloak-anemone.