THE SHELLFISH INDUSTRY 317 



pounds and be over ten inches broad. No other crab is 

 eaten to any extent in the British Isles, although the shore 

 crab used to be sold in great numbers and is still eaten 

 on the shores of the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic 

 coasts of France, where the large Spider Crab (Maia 

 squinado) is also eaten in spite of its extremely thick shell. 

 The Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus), one of the swimming 

 crabs, takes the place of the British edible crab along the 

 Atlantic coasts of North America, where several other 

 crabs are also eaten ; in the East Indies also various 

 kinds of swimming crabs are used as food. 



The shrimps and prawns include a number of smaller 

 Crustaceans which are collected in large quantities for 

 food. Of the prawns the largest sold in this country is 

 Leander serratus (Plate 117) which is often four inches or 

 more in length with a fine serrated rostrum. A second 

 common prawn, distinguished from the common prawn, 

 Leander, by the name " Pink Shrimp," is Pandalus 

 Montagui, an exceptionally handsome crustacean, while 

 another species of the same genus (Pandalus borealis) is 

 imported from Norway. This is an exceptionally fine 

 prawn often six inches long, which, unlike the other prawns 

 we have been discussing which live in shallow water, is 

 found in the fjords at depths of from thirty to sixty fathoms. 

 The growth of this fishery was the result of scientific re- 

 search of the Norwegian Fishery Department which 

 revealed its hitherto unknown presence in the deep water, 

 and showed that it could be caught on a commercial scale 

 by means of special trawls, with the result that an im- 

 portant fishery of these " deep-water prawns " was 

 established. Many other kinds of prawns are caught in 

 different parts of the world and attempts have been made 

 to send frozen prawns from Queensland to England. 



The common shrimp (Crangon vulgaris) is one of the 



