With Fish-Lines and Nets 99 



soft material not too intimately connected with 

 yourself, and lower him slowly into boiling 

 water; the crab will let his claws and nearly 

 half of his body get parboiled before he thinks 

 of letting go. Instead of this, begin by plung- 

 ing the crab instantly under, and the claws open 

 at once. The notion that it is more humane, 

 as some people contend, to half pulverize the 

 crab with an axe before boiling him, is the 

 sheerest nonsense, as any one can find out by 

 experiment. 



The last year has been an excellent one for 

 crabbing a better catch has not been known 

 since 1876. Earlier in the season, before the 

 first crabs had made their appearance, an old 

 "Cap'n " and fisherman of this neighborhood, 

 who is an expert in all matters pertaining to 

 fish, tides, weather, and profane language, told 

 me that there would be no crabs this year. 

 He is a dear old man, close upon eighty years 

 of age, who is so full of gentle humor and 

 kindly shrewdness that he can rip out oath 

 after oath without offending any one. "He 

 swears so gently," said a lady of my acquaint- 

 ance, "that it does n't seem like real swearing. " 



