DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6641#0051
JOURNEY TO
most fearful temper when they are first caught,
but afterwards feign death. They are, I think,
the most curious creatures I have ever seen.
The crabs make a good second to them. They
are amphibious, and as one walks along the shore,
suddenly half-a-dozen are landed by a wave twenty
feet ahead. As soon as they see a person
approaching, they either bolt up to their holes in
the sand, which are situated perhaps twenty yards
in shore, or else scurry back again into the sea.
They stand very high, and move at a prodigious
rate, so that it is almost impossible to run them
down even in open level ground. The way in
which they take advantage of a wave for landing,
and also for getting into the sea, is most amusing.
When landing, they appear all in an instant, five
or six together, and run up the bank. When
they bolt for the sea, they shoot down the bank,
crouch as a wavelet comes near, and start again
EL 'ARISH. 37
as soon as it covers them. A cautious old crab
will never allow itself to be taken off its feet, but
a hare-brained youngster will rush full tilt into
the middle of a wave, and be thrown head over
heels in an instant.
To chase the crabs, to snatch at the dogfish
which, thrown up by each wave, invariably struggle
back into safety with the next, are necessary
diversions, for the interesting points on the shore
are few and far between, and the horizon is very
limited. Yet that shore is sacred to the memory
of Pompey the Great, who met his cruel fate at
Casius ; and between El 'Arfsh and Pelusium we
search for the ruins of Ostracine, " the city of
shells " : the tomb of Pompey and the temple of
Zeus Casius: the camp of the Athenian Chabrias,
and the station called by some Pentaschoenum, by
others Gerrha.
most fearful temper when they are first caught,
but afterwards feign death. They are, I think,
the most curious creatures I have ever seen.
The crabs make a good second to them. They
are amphibious, and as one walks along the shore,
suddenly half-a-dozen are landed by a wave twenty
feet ahead. As soon as they see a person
approaching, they either bolt up to their holes in
the sand, which are situated perhaps twenty yards
in shore, or else scurry back again into the sea.
They stand very high, and move at a prodigious
rate, so that it is almost impossible to run them
down even in open level ground. The way in
which they take advantage of a wave for landing,
and also for getting into the sea, is most amusing.
When landing, they appear all in an instant, five
or six together, and run up the bank. When
they bolt for the sea, they shoot down the bank,
crouch as a wavelet comes near, and start again
EL 'ARISH. 37
as soon as it covers them. A cautious old crab
will never allow itself to be taken off its feet, but
a hare-brained youngster will rush full tilt into
the middle of a wave, and be thrown head over
heels in an instant.
To chase the crabs, to snatch at the dogfish
which, thrown up by each wave, invariably struggle
back into safety with the next, are necessary
diversions, for the interesting points on the shore
are few and far between, and the horizon is very
limited. Yet that shore is sacred to the memory
of Pompey the Great, who met his cruel fate at
Casius ; and between El 'Arfsh and Pelusium we
search for the ruins of Ostracine, " the city of
shells " : the tomb of Pompey and the temple of
Zeus Casius: the camp of the Athenian Chabrias,
and the station called by some Pentaschoenum, by
others Gerrha.