48 A Great War among Crayfish. 



them, but especially he loves the sandie 

 and gravely running waters." 



Mascall gives an excellent illustration 

 of the crayfish not quite equal to that in 

 Professor Huxley's delightful monograph 

 on the subject, of course, but excellent, 

 considering the centuries between them. 

 The gastronomical value of the crayfish is 

 no slight one, as all will admit who have 

 tasted it on the Continent in Potage Bisque, 

 or as a garnish with fish, or simply boiled 

 and eaten with salad and mayonnaise sauce. 

 According to Professor Huxley, there are 

 on the Continent two kinds of crayfish, 

 whereas we have only one, and ours the 

 least valuable of the two. I remember that 

 in Germany we used to value the Edel- 

 Krebs much before the Stein-Krebs, and 

 in France the " Ecrevisse a pieds blancs " 

 is ^steemed much less than the larger 

 "Ecrevisse a pieds rouges." 



Some years ago I read an account in a 

 German fishing paper of a great war which 

 was said to be going on in Russian rivers 

 between the noble crayfish and the stone 

 or common crayfish, in which the former 

 were being gradually exterminated. It is 

 certain that the crayfish is subject to a 

 very mysterious disease, called " crayfish 

 pest," in Germany, by which it is extir- 

 minated in whole districts. Like grouse 



