282 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



wards from the Cromer crab grounds by a strong 

 tide. 



Myriads of Shore Crabs (Car emus moenas) swarm 

 on Breydon mud flats. The small trawl-nets, used 

 for procuring the " Eelpouts " (Viviparous Blennies) 

 that are used as baits for eel-lines, come up with 

 hundreds at a haul. The eel babbers are pestered 

 by them, sometimes half a dozen gathering on and 

 clinging to the worms upon their line. Anglers 

 spend half their time rebaiting the hooks so 

 assiduously stripped by them every time the 

 line is put overboard. Up the Bure, even into 

 the fresh waters, they travel, everywhere annoying, 

 and constantly trying the tempers of those whose 

 lines and nets they infest. Anglers for " butts " 

 (flounders) in the Bure usually smash everyone they 

 haul in, having, not the satisfaction of minimising 

 the evil, but revenge on a particular individual who 

 has tried, perhaps, to add injury to insult by 

 endeavouring to hurt the fingers that peevishly 

 wrenched it off the baits. In the late autumn of 

 1898 a local angling club thought to turn the 

 perseverance and numbers as well as the greed of the 

 pugnacious crabs to account by offering prizes for 

 the greatest weight taken on one line. One fellow 



