394 THE WORLD OF FISH. [CHAP. ix. 



of spawning is commenced by allowing the waves to wash 

 gently over their bodies. A few days of this kind of bathing 

 assists the process of oviposition, and knots of spawn similar 

 to lumps of herring-roe are gradually washed into the water, 

 which in a short time finishes the operation. Countless 

 thousands of these eggs are annually devoured by various 

 fishes and monsters of the deep that lie in wait for them during 

 the spawning season. After their brief seaside sojourn, the old 

 crabs undergo their moult, and at this period thousands of them 

 sicken and die, and large numbers of them are captured for 

 table use, soft crabs being highly esteemed by all lovers of 

 good things. By the time they have recovered from their 

 moult the army of juveniles from the seaside begins to make 

 its appearance in order to join the old stock in the mountains ; 

 and thus the legion of land-crabs is annually recruited by a 

 fresh batch, which in their turn perform the annual migration 

 to the sea much as their parents have done before them. 



Before leaving the crabs and lobsters, it is worthy of 

 remark that an experienced dealer can tell at once the 

 locality whence any particular lobster is obtained whether 

 from the west of Ireland, the Orkney Islands, or the coast of 

 Brittany. The shelly inhabitants of different localities are 

 distinctly marked. Indeed fish are peculiarly local in their 

 habits, although the vulgar idea has hitherto been that all 

 kinds of sea animals herd indiscriminately together ; that the 

 crab and the lobster crept about the bottom rocks, whilst the 

 waving skate or the swaggering lingfish dashed about in mid- 

 water, the prowling "dogs" busily preying on the shoals of 

 herring supposed to be swimming near ; the brilliant shrimp 

 flashing through the crowd like a meteor, the elegant saithe 

 keeping them company ; the whole being overshadowed by a 

 few whales, and kept in awe by a dozen or so of sharks ! 

 Nothing can be more different than the reality of the water- 

 world, which is colonised quite as systematically as the earth. 



