SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS. 85 



voyagers who are conversant v^itli the habits of shrimps, 

 and who have a knowledge of the peculiarities of J/. 

 vulgaris, do not heedlessly trust their salt junk over 

 the side to soak, fearing lest their experiences might 

 be like those of the jST orse skipper, who, in a spirit of 

 maritim.e recklessness, lowered the dinner of his ship's 

 company to the ocean's depths, and hauled up, much 

 to his consternation and disgust, a well-nibbled string 

 instead. The opossums and their relations had eaten 

 the rest. 



The Indian and Chinese seas yield an endless 

 variety of both the shrimp and prawn families, the 

 latter of a size far beyond anything we see in our 

 more frigid waters {Palcemon carcinus), common to the 

 Indian Ocean and some of the great rivers flowing into 

 it, not unfrequently reaching a foot in length. Those 

 usually sold in the Indian markets are not as large 

 as these, but are still of sufficient size to render them 

 higlily attractive ; and those who, like us, have eaten 

 prawns in the East, prepared by those Vv^ho know the 

 secrets of the art, will bear away the remembrance of 

 their flavour as an agreeable souvenir. That is, if the 

 said prawns happen to be free from the curious, and 

 little understood fish poison, with which the denizens 

 of Tropic seas are too often encumbered. In favoured 

 England, no such drawback to the full enjoyment of 

 your pra'v\Ti-feast need exist ; the common difficulty 



