A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



from the neighbouring sea. But the canny fishermen may have received 

 dead specimens from a passing vessel, or the species may really have been 

 the North American Limulus polyphemus (Linn.), which is caught by the 

 million on the shores of the United States. Limulus, by the great size 

 of its representatives, seems to deserve its name of king-crab, but, unfortu- 

 nately for the name, it is not a crab at all. According to one set of 

 disputants in a lively controversy, it is not even a crustacean, but an 

 arachnid. Interesting as it is in itself, we must therefore reluctantly leave 

 it alone, and pursue a humbler theme. 



Of Mr. Palmer's twofold statement that shrimps, meaning the edible 

 shrimps of this country, are the least but most delicious of all shell-fish, 

 the first part, that they are the least, is too untenable to need discussion ; 

 the second part, that they are the most delicious, is a question of taste. 

 Some men prefer oysters. But oysters have at least this advantage, that 

 they really are shell-fish. Shrimps are not so, unless we please to follow 

 dictionaries and Acts of Parliament in a defunct classification which mixes 

 up crustaceans with molluscs. Shrimp itself is a vague expression, in- 

 definitely defined by Webster as ' a long-tailed decapod crustacean of the 

 genus Crangon, and others ; often applied to most of the smaller macrou- 

 rans.' Probably Palmer refers to the widely diffused and extensively 

 consumed Crangon vulgaris (Linn.), the 'common shrimp.' With this is 

 sometimes found the Crangon allmanni (Kinahan), which can be distin- 

 guished by the longitudinal groove on the back of the penultimate segment 

 of the pleon, continued in shallower form on the terminal segment or telson. 

 Because of this groove it is called by Adam White the ' channel-tailed 

 shrimp.' Metzger records it from twelve fathoms on the Norfolk coast.* 

 It is so like its ' vulgar ' relation that often no doubt it passes under the 

 eyes and palate of the unobservant as though it were itself a common 

 shrimp. 



The tribe Caridea, to which shrimps and prawns collectively belong, is 

 distributed into several divisions and numerous families. As of shrimps, 

 so of prawns, there are numerous species and genera. The serrate sword 

 projecting from the head is a fairly good mark of such prawns as are 

 likely to be met with at English tables. Compared with the prawns of 

 the whole world, those of England form an insignificant group, but they 

 are not confined to a single species, nor even to a single genus. From 

 various notices one is led to infer that Leander serratus, ' the common 

 prawn,' is in Norfolk less common than Pandalus montagui (Leach), 

 sometimes less correctly called Pandalus annulicornis. This has rings of 

 red and white alternating on its antenna, and White gives its name in 

 English, without much regard to euphony, as the ringed-horned prawn.* 

 Leach, in 1 8 1 5, writes : ' It is used at Yarmouth as an article of food, and 

 is at that place so much esteemed for the table as to afford constant em- 

 ployment during the summer season to several fishermen, who take it in 

 abundance at a considerable distance from the shore, and name it from that 



^ Nordseefahrt der Pommerania, p. 2 90. 

 ^ Popular History of British Crustacea, p. 126. 

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