i6 



and nothing more ; but if they were closely followed up by 

 many observers, they would produce for us more good fish 

 than we get on our present haphazard principles. 



I spoke just now of the very combative nature of some 

 of the stalk-eyed crustaceans. The species that most excel 

 in this quality are the soldier or hermit crabs. Their first 

 idea of independent life is to eat some friendly whelk, and 

 occupy its shell. Their next is to give battle to every crab 

 of the same persuasion as themselves that they come 

 across ; and altogether they form, as you can see in any 

 aquarium, the most quarrelsome and most amusing set of 

 crustaceans in existence. 



It may seem utterly absurd to speak of these hard- 

 shelled crustaceans as capable of suffering from skin- 

 disease, but it is nevertheless the fact that they are so. 

 Under certain circumstances, of which we know nothing, a 

 peculiar cancerous eating out of the outer part of the back 

 and claws takes place, spreading irregularly like a map 

 over the crustacean, and showing a black colour. Shell- 

 fish thus attacked are known as " pocked " crabs or 

 lobsters, and are unfit for food ; but I need not labour 

 this point further, because I know of no fisherman who 

 would send a crab of this sort into the market. 



One more statement of a fact (some people might call it 

 an anecdote) and I have done. Most of you probably know 

 that on a dark summer's night the water of the sea, to the 

 depth of as much as twenty fathoms, is from some cause or 

 another luminous when disturbed. When this phenomenon 

 occurs, a fishing line can be traced down its whole length, 

 and a fish caught at the bottom of the sea comes struggling 

 and sprawling up in a blaze of phosphorescent light. I was 

 once fishing in about fourteen fathoms of water, when I 

 hooked a fish. I hauled it up, making as it came a most pro- 



