In tropical countries the hermit-crabs of the family _Coenobitidae_ live on land, often at considerable distances from the sea, to which, however, they return for the purpose of hatching out their spawn. The large robber-crab or cocoa-nut crab of the Indo-Pacific islands (_Birgus latro_), which belongs to this family, has given up the habit of carrying a portable dwelling, and the upper surface of its abdomen has become covered by shelly plates. The stories of its climbing palm-trees to get the fruit were long doubted, but it has been seen, and even photographed in the act. (W. T. CA.)
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--_Gecarcinus ruricola_ (Violet Land Crab).]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--_Portunus puber_ (Velvet Swimming Crab).]
[Illustration: FIG. 5. _Podophthalmus vigil_ (Sentinel Spinous Crab).]
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--_Eupagurus Bernhardus_ (Soldier Crab).]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--_Pinnotheres pisum_ (Pea Crab).]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--_Corystes Cassivelaunus_ (Masked Crab).]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--_Eupagurus angulatus_ (a Hermit Crab).]
CRABBE, GEORGE (1754-1832), English poet, was born at Aldeburgh in Suffolk on the 24th of December 1754. His family was partly of Norfolk, partly of Suffolk origin, and the name was doubtless originally derived from "crab." His grandfather, Robert Crabbe, was the first of the family to settle at Aldeburgh, where he held the appointment of collector of customs. He died in 1734, leaving one son, George, who practised many occupations, including that of a schoolmaster, in the adjoining village of Orford. Finally the poet's father obtained a small post in the customs of Aldeburgh, married Mary Lodwick, the widow of a publican, and had six children, of whom George was the eldest.
The sea has swept away the small cottage that was George Crabbe's birthplace, but one may still visit the quay at Slaughden, some half-mile from the town, where the father worked and the son was at a later date to work with him. At first attending a dame's school in Aldeburgh, when nine or ten years of age he was sent to a boarding-school at Bungay, and at twelve to a school at Stowmarket, where he remained two years. His father dreamt of the medical profession for his clever boy, and so in 1768 he went to Wickham Brook near Newmarket as an apothecary's assistant. In 1771 we find him assisting a surgeon at Woodbridge, and it was while here that he met Sarah Elmy. Crabbe was now only eighteen years of age, but he became "engaged" to this lady in 1772. It was not until 1783 that the pair were married. The intervening years were made up of painful struggle, in which, however, not only the affection but the purse of his betrothed assisted him. About the time of Crabbe's return from Woodbridge to Aldeburgh he published at Ipswich his first work, a poem entitled _Inebriety_ (1775). He found his father fallen on evil days. There was no money to assist him to a partnership, and surgery for the moment seemed out of the question. For a few weeks Crabbe worked as a common labourer, rolling butter casks on Slaughden quay. Before the year was out, however, the young man bought on credit "the shattered furniture of an apothecary's shop and the drugs that stocked it." This was at Aldeburgh. A year later Crabbe installed a deputy in the surgery and paid his first visit to London. He lodged in Whitechapel, took lessons in midwifery and walked the hospitals. Returning to Aldeburgh after nine months--in 1777--he found his practice gone. Even as a doctor for the poor he was an utter failure, poetry having probably taken too firm a hold upon his mind. At times he suffered hunger, so utterly unable was he to earn a livelihood. After three years of this, in 1780 Crabbe paid his second visit to London, enabled thereto by the loan of five pounds from Dudley Lang, a local magnate. This visit to London, which was undertaken by sea on board the "Unity" smack, made for Crabbe a successful career. His poem _The Candidate_, issued soon after his arrival, helped not at all. For a time he almost starved, and was only saved, it is clear, by gifts of money from his sweetheart Sarah Elmy. He importuned the great, and the publishers also. Everywhere he was refused, but at length a letter which reached Edmund Burke in March 1781 led to the careful consideration on the part of that great man of Crabbe's many manuscripts. Burke advised the publication of _The Library_, which appeared in 1781. He invited him to Beaconsfield, and made interest in the right quarters to secure Crabbe's entry into the church. He was ordained in December 1781 and was appointed curate to the rector of Aldeburgh.