332 MODERN SEA FISHING 



dishes and rare good sport on occasions, pay us out by 

 poisoning us from time to time with ptomaines, the result 

 maybe of a banquet on some cholera-stricken seaman. 1 have 

 always had a distaste for the edible crab, as he is called, ever 

 since I saw one feeding on a particularly loathsome mass of 

 decaying animal matter which had floated out of Tenby Harbour 

 and moored itself among some rocks about a foot under water. 

 The quaint little Hermit Crab, common enough in English 

 waters, is certainly one of the most singular members of the 

 family. Something has already been said about him in the 

 Bait chapter. Nature having conferred upon him no decent 

 covering for the greater portion of his body, he slips the end of 

 his unclothed tail into any convenient shell, generally choosing 

 that of a deceased whelk. Many a time have I pulled up my 

 bait and found a pair of tiny pincers hanging on to it, the rest 

 of the creature, four short legs excepted, being contained within 

 an otherwise untenanted whelk shell. Put him down on the 

 floorboards of the boat and watch him for a minute or two. 

 For a time nothing will happen ; then the claws and the four 

 legs slowly come out of the shell and begin a slow progress 

 across the boat. Touch him ever so lightly and he retreats 

 into his shell-house with a sharp snap like the steel fastening 

 of a lady's bag. 



From a zoologist's point of view the crab is a superior 

 animal to the lobster because he has no tail to speak of. For 

 the same reason a man is a superior animal to a monkey. 

 The crab, unlike a man, is born with a tail, but in course of 

 time shortens it, and tucks it away under his body. The lobster, 

 on the other hand, retains his tail at some length until supper 

 time. While the crab walks sideways, the lobster swims back- 

 wards, and having projecting eyes which work on universal joints, 

 he can see round the corner with the greatest facility. 



Many years ago lobster culture was attempted with more or 



