(8/7.
Mr. Blackwall in his "Researches in Zoology" has many excellent
observations on the habits of spiders.)
During our different passages south of the Plata, I often towed
astern a net made of bunting, and thus caught many curious animals.
Of Crustacea there were many strange and undescribed genera. One,
which in some respects is allied to the Notopods (or those crabs
which have their posterior legs placed almost on their backs, for
the purpose of adhering to the under side of rocks), is very
remarkable from the structure of its hind pair of legs. The
penultimate joint, instead of terminating in a simple claw, ends in
three bristle-like appendages of dissimilar lengths--the longest
equalling that of the entire leg. These claws are very thin, and
are serrated with the finest teeth, directed backwards: their
curved extremities are flattened, and on this part five most minute
cups are placed which seem to act in the same manner as the suckers
on the arms of the cuttle-fish. As the animal lives in the open
sea, and probably wants a place of rest, I suppose this beautiful
and most anomalous structure is adapted to take hold of floating
marine animals.
In deep water, far from the land, the number of living creatures is
extremely small: south of the latitude 35 degrees, I never
succeeded in catching anything besides some beroe, and a few
species of minute entomostracous crustacea.
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