te î
o f lim l)S AA'itli c lie læ in s t e a d o f th r e e , a n d th e c a r a p
a c e is so ft. To t h e g e n u s Astacus, th e r e fo r e , with
AA'liich i t has a l l c h a r a c te r s in c om m o n e x c e p t th e
g r e a t dcA'clojiment o f th e r ig h t c h e la a n d th e t o t a l
a b s e n c e o f e y e s— n e ith e r c h a r a c te r s o f g e n e r ic value
— tb e p r e s e n t sp e c ie s m u s t h e r e fe r r ed .
A . zale'ucus W-S.
Rostrum spiny, elongated. Lamellar appendage of
the outer antenna reaching to the middle of the
second joint of the funiculus. Chelæ on three pairs
of ambulatory feet, those on the first pair strongly
but unequally developed. Céphalothorax very much
compressed laterally. Eye-stalks and eyes entirely
Avanting.
On Sunday the 16th of March Ave anchored in the
Gregaria channel at the entrance of the harbour of
Charlotte Amalia. TVe spent a fcAv very pleasant
days at St. Thomas, some of the civilians of our party
enjoying greatly their first experience of life and
scenery Avithin the tropics. AI. Gardé, the Danish
Governor, received us Avith the most friendly hospitality.
He is a naval man, and Avas greatly interested
in our investigations ; and his aide-de-camp, Baron
Eggers, had collected and worked out the plants of
the island Avith care, and Avas otherwise well acquainted
Avith its natural history. St. Thomas, like
most of the TVest Indian Islands, has suffered greatly
since the emancipation, from the difficulty of procuring
free labour; and most of the sugar estates,
formerly in high cultivation and a source of large
revenue, are noAv Avaste and covered Avith a second
jungle. The comparative prosperity of this island
seems to he entirely due to the excellence of the
harbour, which marks it ont as the principal packet
and coaling station for that part of the W est Indies.
The natural history of the Island of St. Thomas is
tolerably well known, and large collections of its
fauna and flora have been sent home from time to
time by many competent naturalists to the museum
at Copenhagen. On the present occasion our time
was much too limited to attempt to make collections,
so the naturalists contented themselves with a little
shallow-Avater dredging, and snch a general survey of
the island and its shores as might familiarize them
Avith the more characteristic forms of animal and vegetable
life ; for while the Atlantic Islands, Aladeira and
the Canaries, although gradually assuming a more tropical
character, maintain the most intimate relations
in natural products with the south of Europe, in
tropical America everything is changed, and it takes
a little time to become familiar with ucav acquaintances,
whom one has hitherto known, if he have
knoAvn them at all, only from figures or descriptions,
or at best mummied or pickled, or otherwise in inadequate
effigy. Ophinrideans are particularly plentiful
at St. Thomas, and Ave made large collections of
these, particularly of the many large and characteristic
TVest Indian species of the genus Opliioderma.
On the 24th of Alarch Ave left the harbour of
Charlotte Amalia, and proceeded Avith a light northeasterly
breeze towards the Culehra passage. The
next morning, the weather still continuing favourable,
Ave sounded in 390 fathoms, the hottom glohigerina
mud, Avith fragments of coral and an unusually large
proportion of the shells of pteropods of the genera
Cleodora, Diacria, and StyUola. In the forenoon the
i p l
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