46 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 292 



have been seen crossing the road between the mouth of the Layou 

 River and the town of Roseau. They are especially common along 

 the foot of the cliffs just south of the mouth of the Layou and just 

 north of Roseau and in the Cabrits area. If gunny sacks are not 

 available, vines are utilized to bind the chelipeds and walking legs 

 so close to the body that the crabs are immobilized. In such a helpless 

 condition, six or eight of them can be tied together and carried as 

 though they were in shopping bags. Crabs thus restrained are often 

 offered for sale in the open air market in Roseau. Since these crabs 

 wander relatively short distances from the coast, hardly more than 

 two mUes, they are not available to those persons who live near the 

 center of the island. 



Macrobrachium carcinus is sought in several ways; perhaps the 

 oldest technique involves explorations with the bare hands beneath 

 rocks. It was a continued source of amazement to observe the abilities 

 of men, women, and boys who thrust their hands in spaces beneath 

 stones and withdrew a specimen of Macrobrachium or Atya. Since the 

 exoskeleton of Atya innocous is so smooth that it is very diflBcult to 

 hold a living individual even out of the water, it must take consid- 

 erable experience to be able to catch the shrimp \\dth one's bare 

 hands. 



A second technique involves tying small pieces of "coconut meat" 

 to strings that are anchored at the shoreline of the rivers, with the 

 coconut resting in shallow water a foot or two away from the shore. 

 These baited lines are left until well after dark. With the aid of a 

 torch or flashlight, the shrimp that have been attracted to the coconut 

 are easily seen and may be caught with one's hands. 



At least some of the populace catch their "crayfish" on a book and 

 line. The equipment is prepared as follows: to one end of a 6-foot 

 line is tied a bent pin (the barb on a fish hook, we are told, keeps the 

 shrimp from accepting the hook), and the other end of the line is 

 tied close to ore end of a pole some three feet long. The hooked pin 

 should be baited with either small pieces of shrimp or earthworm, 

 and the point of the hooked pin should be lightly stuck into the same 

 end of the pole to which the line is tied. The opposite end of the pole 

 should be grasped in one hand with the index finger flexed to hook 

 around the now U-shaped slack line approximately midway between 

 its two ends. With the hook thus lightly anchored in the end of the 

 pole, the baited end of the pole can be carefully directed into a crevice 

 or gently tlirust beneath a rock (either one a likely hiding place for 

 the shrimp) even in the swifter currents. If the shrimp accepts the 

 bait, detectable by a gentle tug on the index finger hooked around 

 the line, the finger should be extended, thus releasing the line. The 

 pole is slowly withdrawn until the slack has been taken from the line 

 and, within one and one-half minutes, should be drawn firmly but 



