AN HOUR AT AN AQUARIUM.
At Tank No. 3 the visitor ascends the scale, and comes to Crabs and Lobsters. To people who have seen these crustaceans only under the disadvantageous and ignominious circumstances of supper and salad, the idea of them as beautiful, stately, imposing, many-coloured, with eyes like jewels, limbs of extraordinary grace, delicacy, and dexterity, and habits intelligent, not to say long- sighted and crafty, will present difficulty and suggest incredulity. Let them inspect, not merely glance at, but contemplate, the tenants of the Crystal Palace Aquarium Tanks, and they will be convinced. Here is the spinous spider-crab, with a pattern in white rings traced on his back, owing to certain annelidm having settled upon that promising territory, setting himself up on end, until he looks like a crimson pine-apple with prickly, out-reaching branches. Here is another, much larger, who looks elderly, overbearing, and gouty ; his preposterously lengthy and curly limbs have knuckles knobblier than his fellows', his claws look vicious, he sends the little pebbles flying as he advances with a rearing action, hugely ridiculous, to dispute a scrap of floating dinner with a mild little crab, who snaps the menaced morsel up in a hurry, and shuts up his claws and limbs all round his body, like blades of a self-acting pen- knife. The larger and spikier crab retires, really, it would seem, prancing with rage. Then two spectators in the background come forward, pirouetting, with one set of limbs waving wildly above their bodies, while the opposite set propel them after the indescribable fashion of crabs. They pose gracefully' close to the glass for a few moments, and then retire, executit.g, in perfect order, and as if by word of command, the movement familiar to the gamin as catherine-wheels. Still, fascinating as the crab is, especially when he is catching his food with one marvellously alert set of feelers, and transferring it with a second little fussy, busy pair, like rapid hands, to that queer mouth of his, like a slit in a breastplate, he is not comparable in grandeur and beauty to the lobster. Let all visitors read Mr. Lloyd's handbook on lobsters, before they look into the lobster tank ; otherwise, if they have not plenty of time to spare, they may not be able to find out what noble and picturesque, warlike and ingenious creatures they are. What a treat it would be to observe that noble lobster,—a Sir Lancelot, a Cid, an Amadis among shell-fish, —who is the pride of this collection, undergoing the mauvais quart neure which Mr. Lloyd describes as follows!—
" The lobster is aware of its approaching moult, and instinctively knowing its utter helplessness from the attacks of its fellows, or from other animals during the quarter or half hour occupied by the dis- engagement of its shell, and while it is more or less soft for a few days afterwards, it, in an aquarium sets about making a regular fortress, choosing its position with great judgment, usually beneath a shelving rock, with rock on each side, and with a kind of ' earthwork ' thrown up defensively in front, composed of the sand and shingle which have been removed from the hole in which it burrows, and here, ever on the watch for intruders, it patiently awaits its change of coat. Occasionally, when this fortification cannot be made, the lobster seeks a less perfectly protected place on a plateau of rock close to the water's surface, and therefore not often visited by other animals. When the time at last comes, it throws itself on its aide, and ruptures the skin connecting the body with the first ring of the abdomen, and this is the only part intentionally broken, though occasionally a limb is accidentally separated in the operation. The greatest difficulty seems to be in drawing the large anterior claws through the comparatively very small dimensions of the same limbs where they join the body. The claws are soft, however, and are temporarily rendered shapeless by being pulled through these little orifices. After the great limbs are free, the rest is more easy, and by a series of spasmodic efforts the remainder of the legs are extricated, together with the antenna's, great and small, and the whole of the complex organs surrounding the mouth, and even the eyes and the breathing organs are withdrawn from their old coverings, and while this goes on, the tail is released. All proceeds simultaneously, so that while one part of the process is being watched, another is effected unobserved. Whenever everything is at last free, the lobster lies as if dead, and occasionally does die from exhaustion, but generally it slowly turns over on its legs, which, being soft, cannot support the body, however ; but by remaining quiet, the creature gains strength, hardness, and courage, and the first use it makes of its returning vigour is to thrust the old covering outside of its den, or else bury it. But when a cast-off suit of armour can I)) secured whole, it is about one-fourth less than the size of the lobster which came out of it, and one can hardly credit that it could have cc:I:Tied so small a space. In about three days the newly attired lobster can go about with its mates on equal terms?'
It is delicious to read about, but what must it be to see ! Pali- nurus quadricornis is the much-sounding name of a beautiful amethyst and ruby-tinted, spiny lobster, who is very magnificent, and who never hides. All the Crayfish have an extraordinary appearance of grandeur, dignity, superciliousness, fastidiousness, and petit-maitredom about them. They look so soignes, they move with an absurd pretentiousness, a tip-toey carefulness, a mea- sured vivacity, which reminds one of minuet dancing, and their expressive spindliness recalls the old caricatures of the French Marquises of the first Emigration. Here is one, big enough to make a salad for Gargantua, who comes down the middle of the deep's untrampled floor, dancing as "high and disposedly" as did Queen Elizabeth when she wanted to captivate the French Ambassador, and to much more genuine applause ; though every- body is eager to get on to the tank of the Cuttles, and is speculat- ing upon the obligingness of the Octopus in the matter of uncurl- ing himself for the public weal. The swimming crabs intervene, sullen, curious creatures. Here is one obstinate-looking crab, a boot- eating juryman among his tribe, with a tightly-shut mouth, and an accidental foreign substance in one eye ; and all about him are darting exquisite transparent prawns, with their filmy feelers, and their armed heads, like the miniature war-horse head of the beautiful scaled grasshopper. In this tank there is a forcible suggestion of the floor of the great deep, for loose among its sand and pebbles lie many little skeletons, tiny dry bones, and chips of small seaweeds ; a contemplative, cynical-looking bream, securely hitched into a crevice of the rocks, surveys the debris, and waits for refreshment ; and some brilliant scarlet sea-anemones live their mysterious life below. Close by are plaice, codling, turbot, and skate ; and of all the beautiful sights the Aquarium has to show, perhaps the plaice, swimming and at rest, is the most beautiful. Nothing can exceed the swift, dexterous grace of the upward motion, as the fish, with its jewelled robe, precisely like a royal mantle with a deep flounce of filmy lace, its keen head, brilliant eyes, and soft, feathery, transparent fins, rises from the sand where it lies hidden, the heaving gills only perceptible, shakes the pebbles from its back, and floats up into the light. Many of the fishes
burrow in the sand, and some of the smallest, lying hidden with their heads pushed out, have an absurd resemblance to the hippopotamus taking his mud-bath. Scaly crea- tures, whose beauty and variety of colour are wonderful, lark in crevices; brilliant little wrasse dart about ; a whole regiment of codling, in splendid uniform of glistening silver and light green, are on parade in a corner ; a glow of opal and amethyst is all about the flitting creatures. The rocks are crowded by brilliant prawns, like knights met for a tourney, feather-crested, with flashing armour ; and a solitary skate is so accommodating as to rise and attach himself to the glass, with his
under-side turned out, so that the whole of his internal machinery is traceable, thanks to the admirable disposition of the light, and he looks, with his unmeaning eyes, and his foolish gobemouehe mouth, like Sol on the sign-post of a village inn. Still between the visitor and the Devil Fish (eveybody is quoting Victor Hugo, of course, and one inquiring young person wants to know whether cuttle really comes from "cuddle," to hug?) is the jewel-box of this marvel- lous collection, a tank whose principal inhabitants are a number of wrasse. Nothing can exceed their beauty ; it is like that of Indian jewellery, of Indian embroidery, of everything in which wealth, harmony, and ordering of colour, combined with delicate form, are supreme. They float, and dart, they quiver and dive above a cluster of sea-anemones of extraordinary beauty. Here is one bunch, which in form is like miniature palm trees growing on an island ; but in colour is a rich apricot hue, and in texture like the softest velvet, with a sprouting fringe of waving feathery fronds. It requires all the attraction of the Cuttles to get the visitors beyond that tank, but a shriek of delight from a young gentleman in advance of them, who anticipates that his sister, following with the rear-guard of a party, will be "jolly frightened," announces that the hero of the programmes, whose ugly portrait has been staring all London in the face with that horri- ble, central, movable eye of his, is on view. So he is, with several of his half-brethren, as they may be called, for they do not quite resemble him. Octopus, Mr. Lloyds tells us, has two rows of suckers on his legs, while Eledone has but one. He is a wonder- ful creature, and if he must be admitted to be ugly, he is at least much better looking than his portrait,—and as for his murderous qualities,—Victor Hugo's pieuvre is probably as authentic as his bishop or his forget. Octopus curls and twists unpleasantly, and he has webby appendages, which make him look like a marine bat, and he puffs queerly, and opens and shuts a mysterious blow-hole in an odd manner. He is pervaded by a general undulation, which makes one uncertain -where any part of him is, or what it is, or where and what it is going to be next moment ; and his eyes are disconcerting ; but he is not a bad creature, and Mr. Lloyd gives him a five months' character for "doing well, showing a high degree of intelligence, and being very harmless." No small praise for any one, in or out of a tank. His half-brethren are curled up, but a spirit of emulation suddenly moves them, and one, intently watched by the visitors, winks deliberately, and begins literally, and leisurely, to unpack his trunk, by withdraw- ing his limp, curving legs from the bag which forms either his body, or his head, or both. The sight is very curious, and com- parison of these creatures with the singularly clear and perfect description in the handbook is most interesting. In the next tank are the beautiful sucking-fish, deep-blue in colour, with serrated backs, like crocodiles ; and shoals of hermit crabs, walk- ing about with the discarded shells of other marine creatures on their backs. The effect of these peripatetics is very ludicrous, because of all stationary objects the polished shells one sees in lodging-houses, displayed as ornaments, are the stillest in general, and here one beholds a choice collection of them in active motion ; and it is evident that the hermit crab is the busy-body of the sea. And now the last tank has been inspected, and the hour is up, and the visitors have hardly strength of mind to take leave of the Octopus. They would probably have been planted in front of his tank still, pretending to be unconscious of the impatient crowd, madly anxious to get into their places, and audibly won- dering "whether they have not had enough of it yet !" only that they have yet to see the corals, the whelks, the ascidians, the lump-suckers, the dragonets, all the wonderful things in the inner recesses of the Crystal Palace Aquarium.
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