MARINE PLANTS.
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it is enabled, by stratagem or open warfare, to overcome. The body is oblong, the head small, and the teeth slender, but extremely sharp, and bending inwards. The fins of the back are scaly, and the gill-membrane six-rayed. Among the shell-fish are lobsters, (some of which attain to an immense size,) several kinds of crabs,* oysters, (which generally adhere to the mangrove trees,) conchs, whelks, cockles, star-fish, sea-eggs, and smaller multivalves and bivalves. This part of the ocean is also very prolific in marine plants, (some of which, as " sea-feathevs," " sea-fans," &c, are very beautiful,) and corals of several shapes and kinds ; the latter substance is principally used for burning lime. The brain-stone is also frequently found, as well as many other curiosities, which are purchased from the negro divers and sent to England, as presents, but which I must pass over with this brief notice. The testudo Mydas, or sea-turtle, frequent the bays of Antigua. The female is so very prolific, that she sometimes lays 1000 eggs, which are hatched by the sun, in about 25 days. The merits of this amphibious animal are too well known to descant upon. The shell †is very hard and strong, and it will carry as much as 700 or 800 lbs. upon its back. One was captured in these seas, a few years ago which measured six feet across the back, and the shell formed a good boat for a boy to sail about the harbour in. In Cuba, they attain a great size, and have been known to walk off with five or six men standing upon them. A full-grown turtle has often attained the weight of 500 lbs. There are none of this race of giants at Antigua ; those caught upon her shores are of smaller dimensions, although of rich flavour. The cancer ruricola, or land-crab, is another inhabitant of * The cancer graspus is the handsomest of its species, being of a pale yellow, beautifully streaked and spotted with red, and deeply serrated claws of a pure white. When in its native element it spouts out the water from two orifices near its eyes, forming a beautiful and neverceasing arch. t It was the shell of a turtle which served that great monarch, Henry IV. of France, for a cradle.