With Fish-Lines and Nets 103 



ness of keeping in floating boxes or "cars" 

 such crabs as are about to shed their shells. 

 An expert can tell the crab that is going to 

 'shed almost without looking at him. By dint 

 of questioning every man within two miles of 

 here who owns a car I think that I can tell 

 some crabs that are going to shed. To the 

 inexperienced all crabs look alike; they are 

 crawling creatures with a surprising grip. Few 

 persons, and no women, ever get near enough 

 to a crab to admire his superb coloring and the 

 delicacy of his work upon a piece of old fish. 

 But the student who has listened to a dozen 

 life-long experts and has tried to reconcile their 

 wholly opposite accounts of the nature of the 

 animal, knows that there are crabs and crabs. 

 Turn a dozen crabs over on their backs and 

 they may easily be divided into three classes. 

 One set will be perfectly white, with the 

 "breast-bone" or plate a narrow strip; an- 

 other set have the breastplate expanded so 

 as almost to cover the whole shell and streaked 

 in dark blue and green ; still others have the 

 narrow breastplate, but the whole under part 

 of the crab is discolored and not a cream-white. 



