lose to
us. I stared quite fascinated by the unusual sight, and as I
did so I saw one of the beasts stretch out its huge claw and
give the unsuspecting Good such a nip behind that he jumped up
with a howl, and set the 'wild echoes flying' in sober earnest.
Just then, too, another, a very large one, got hold of Alphonse's
leg, and declined to part with it, and, as may be imagined, a
considerable scene ensued. Umslopogaas took his axe and cracked
the shell of one with the flat of it, whereon it set up a horrid
screaming which the echoes multiplied a thousandfold, and began
to foam at the mouth, a proceeding that drew hundreds more of
its friends out of unsuspected holes and corners. Those on the
spot perceiving that the animal was hurt fell upon it like creditors
on a bankrupt, and literally rent it limb from limb with their
huge pincers and devoured it, using their claws to convey the
fragments to their mouths. Seizing whatever weapons were handy,
such as stones or paddles, we commenced a war upon the monsters
-- whose numbers were increasing by leaps and bounds, and whose
stench was overpowering. So fast as we cracked their armour
others seized the injured ones and devoured them, foaming at
the mouth, and screaming as they did so. Nor did the brutes
stop at that. When they could they nipped hold of us -- and
awful nips they were -- or tried to steal the meat. One enormous
fellow got hold of the swan we had skinned and began to drag
it off. Instantly a score of others flung themselves upon the
prey, and then began a ghastly and disgusting scene. How the
monsters foamed and screamed, and rent the flesh, and each other!
It was a sickening and unnatural sight, and one that will haunt
all who saw it till their dying day -- enacted as it was in the
deep, oppressive gloom, and set to the unceasing music of the
many-toned nerve-shaking echoes. Strange as it may seem to say
so, there was something so shockingly human about these fiendish
creatures -- it was as though all the most evil passions and
desires of man had got into the shell of a magnified crab and
gone mad. They were so dreadfully courageous and intelligent,
and they looked as if they _understood_. The whole scene might
have furnished material for another canto of Dante's 'Inferno',
as Curtis said.

'I say, you fellows, let's get out of this or we shall all go
off our heads,' sung out Good; and we were not slow to take the
hint. Pushing the canoe,