Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/47

Rh animals, but evidently driven in, and in serious trouble. The masked crab, which gets its name from the face-like marking of the carapace, buries itself tail foremost in the sand, leaving its long "feelers" or antennæ alone exposed. Whenever there was a lull in the breeze, and the crab happened to be right end up, it started working itself into the sand. Many succeeded, and we found some of these by their antennae, and left them waiting for the next tide; others, however, were caught by the next gust, driven further inland on the sandhills; where the tide would not reach them they would perish, and be added to the varied relics of the shore.

And there are relics, many alas! along this beach. They lie, half buried in the sand, stark, barnacle-covered ribs of gallant vessels. Above the tide reach are broken masts, planks, spars—pitiful fragments. Well may there be a light on Llanddwyn's rocky point; well may there be pilots to guide incoming vessels over the treacherous bar of the western entrance to the Straits. It was bright and sunny here when we saw it first; it is not always so.