228 Sizes of Common Shrimps. 



eastward on occasions, and at certain seasons the pink 

 shrimp comes westward to beyond the Nore. Concerning both 

 forms more explicit data is given hereafter under Fishing 

 Grounds (Sect. V.), and Shrimp- trawling (Sect. VI.). 



Size. The catch as it is tumbled out of the trawl on to the 

 deck, so far as shrimps are concerned, varies according to season 

 and the ground fished. At special times there are numbers of 

 small sized ones of an inch and lj inches in length. Those of 

 half an inch are very seldom indeed got in the trawl, and 

 | inch ones are not frequent. This, however, is not invariably 

 the case, for at irregular intervals, chiefly climax of breeding 

 season, the shrimpers will unexpectedly make a great haul of 

 "dust" or " smig," their expressions for the undersized brood. 

 Whether the meshes of the net allow the diminutive shrimps 

 to escape, or the young mostly keep well down among the sea- 

 weed, mud and sand, or that they perchance trend towards the 

 shallows in their early stage, must be left to surmise. 



Practically! inch is the smallest size the net ever brings up, 

 and 3-inch examples are the current limit of length seen by 

 us. Yet this is not essentially their utmost limits of growth. 

 When with shrimper near the West Oaze Buoy, 16th June, 

 1899, we took note of two most exceptionally large specimens, 

 relatively giants among shrimps. Both aged females, one 3| 

 the other 3f inches long, the former full berried. Moreover, 

 we have been told of an extraordinary shrimp over 4 inches 

 caught near the Spile some years ago. Measurements, it is to be 

 understood, are from the eye to tail-end (telson), thus excluding 

 tlie foot jaws and the short and the long antennae (feelers). 



Tlie general size of the cooked brown shrimps sent to the 

 London market may be put down as ranging from 1J to 2J 

 inches. In good samples those of 2 inches upwards are in 

 excess, there may even be a fair proportion of 2f- inches and 

 others of 2 J inches, besides relatively fewer of extra large old 

 females, 2| inches, still more rarely a 3-inch one. If the 

 sample is poor, and been hastily or carelessly culled, then 



