SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS. 8l 



be used for making the hoops, and a stone placed 

 amongst the bait keeps the net steadily at the bottom. 

 Nets of this kind are, in certain localities, used from. 

 boats. Shrimp-fisheries of great commercial importance 

 exist in many localities for the supply of the London 

 and other great markets, and it is only necessary to 

 reflect for an instant on the enormous quantities of these 

 crustaceans eaten every day in the almost endless tea- 

 gardens, supper-rooms, and places of public resort in and 

 about London alone, to be convinced that the consump- 

 tion of shrimps is truly enormous. Billingsgate teems 

 with them. Sieves worked by nimble hands separate 

 the large from the small, and draw the ^' ad valo?-em" 

 distinction between St. Jaines and St. Giles. Those 

 coral-like aristocrats, the true Prawns of the family 

 [Palcemon seiTatus), are not subjected to the ignoble 

 standard of measurement, but are counted carefully 

 and grudgingly out, like a king's ransom, and estimated 

 by the dozen. Yet it not unfrequently happens that 

 F. serratus in his infancy and youth, so far associates 

 himself with plebeian company as to be boiled in the 

 same ]pot with his less distinguished associates. (Here 

 we might moralize, but space forbids.) Mixed wdth a 

 heterogeneous crew of captured crustaceans of many 

 grades, and the water torture gone through, P, S., like 

 many other young gentlemen wearing jackets of a 

 different colour, loses all individuality, and is igno- 



