76 RAMBLES OF 



is so short, that great activity is required to gather a 

 sufficient number to take to market, but the price at 

 which they are sold is sufficient to awaken all the cupidity 

 of the crabbers. Two dollars a dozen is by no means an 

 uncommon price for them, when the season first comes 

 on; they subsequently come down to a dollar, and even 

 to fifty cents, at any of which rates the trouble of col 

 lecting them is well paid. The slaves search for them at 

 night, and then are obliged to kindle a fire of pine-knots 

 on the bow of the boat, which strongly illuminates the 

 surrounding water, and enables them to discover the 

 crabs. Soft crabs are, with great propriety, regarded as 

 an exquisite treat by those who are fond of such eating ; 

 and though many persons are unable to use crabs or lob- 

 sters in any form, there are few who taste of the soft 

 crabs without being willing to recur to them. As an ar- 

 ticle of luxury they are scarcely known north of the 

 Chesapeake, though there is nothing to prevent them from 

 being used to considerable extent in Philadelphia, espe- 

 cially since the opening of the Chesapeake and Delaware 

 canal. The summer of 1829 I had the finest soft crabs 

 from Baltimore. They arrived at the market in the after- 

 noon, were fried according to rule, and placed in a tin 

 butter kettle, then covered for an inch or two with melt- 

 ed lard, and put on board the steam boat which left Bal- 

 timore at five o'clock the same afternoon. The next morn- 

 ing before ten o'clock they were in Philadelphia, and at 

 one they were served up at dinner in Germantown. The 



