Migrations ; Prawning a Kentish Industry ; Size. 249 



The prawn's migratory and other habits are rather akin 

 perhaps to the " pinks " more than to the " brown shrimps." 

 So far as we learn their winter residence is the deep water off 

 shore in the English Channel. During spring they approach 

 inshore among the shallows and rock-pools along the coast, 

 particularly Hants, Sussex and Kent. Squadrons of them even 

 wander right round the S. and N. Foreland, scattering broad- 

 cast in the estuaries, &c., of the Essex bight as aforesaid. As 

 autumn closes or cold weather creeps in they retire from the 

 estuary, presumably returning Channel wards. At least, they 

 then gather in large congregations on the South Kentish coast, 

 prior to their winter's disappearance. The inference to be 

 drawn points to the prawn's being a Channel or southern form, 

 with a limited migration northwards ; the pink shrimp reversely 

 comes S.W. from the North Sea and retires N. Easterly. 

 The two species commingle, or cross and re-cross each other's 

 usual boundaries at the entrance to the Thames, and here 

 temporarily mix with the brown shrimp.* It may be gathered 

 from the above, and what precedes concerning distribution, how 

 it is that prawning is distinctly a Kentish industry, whilst 

 pink shrimping obtains in N. Kent and Essex. Moreover, 

 though fishery for brown shrimps is common to both, Essex 

 inclines to have the advantage, for its capacious estuaries, mud- 

 flats, and food-yielding brackish waters apparently are those 

 which Crangon prefer. 



Prime market prawns from the English Channel and "W. 

 coast of Ireland occasionally are over 4 inches in length (eye to 

 end of tail), but the current medium market size is about 3} 

 inches, the smallest about 2J inches. Those obtained by us 

 from the Nore sands to the Oaze and Grirdler, the very largest 

 of them have rarely exceeded 3 inches. Such as are taken 

 more towards Harwich are said to be seldom larger. The 

 smallest estuarine ones coming under our observation have 

 resembled pink shrimps in dimensions. 



* Whether the diverse tidal phenomena at the Straits of Dover, to which attention 

 has been drawn in Chap. II., pp. 8 to 16, has an influence on shrimp and prawn areas, 

 as derivative of former times, is quite conjectural. 



