158 THE SEA. 



The bays, shallows, and mouths of rivers on the coast of Prince Edward's Island abound in 

 a species of seaweed known amongst the inhabitants as " eel-grass/' on which vast numbers 

 of lobsters feed as in a rich sea-garden. To these favoured hunting grounds the lobster-catchers 

 betake themselves, and by wading little more than half-leg deep gather as many as they 

 require. A bushel basket has been filled in this way in less than an hour. 



Like the branching growths of submarine life which form the connecting link between 

 the vegetable and animal kingdoms, we find crustaceans dwelling, so to speak, on the border- 

 lands of other races, and linking the shrimp, crab, and lobster families together ; partaking of 

 the nature of each, but being identical with neither; such are the so-called Squat Lobsters, or 

 Galathea. Their singular alertness renders capture somewhat difficult. Like the lobster, they 

 possess extraordinary powers of vision and retrograde movement. The horns are extremely 

 long, and so sensitive that the slightest touch seems to reveal at once the nature of an 

 approaching object, and enables the alarmed squat to seek a safe sanctuary between the rock 

 clefts, from which it is by no means easy to withdraw him. 



The spined lobster, crawfish, cray, or croivder, will, from its thorn-coated shell, long horns, 

 powerful nippers, and generally formidable appearance, be familiar to most of our readers. 

 Like most other crustaceans, the cray delights in a home among rugged sunken rocks, and is 

 taken in the traps laid for ordinary lobsters and crabs. Their flesh, being of harder texture and 

 ; sweeter flavour, is objected to by professed lobster-eaters; still, a well-conditioned spined 

 lobster is by no means to be despised. Some portions of the Pacific Ocean, and the warm seas 

 of the East, contain them in vast numbers. Many spots on the coast of South America, and 

 the bays and inlets of the island of Juan Fernandez, literally swarm with them. Some idea 

 may be formed of the abundance of animated creatures of this and other kinds to be taken in 

 "these seas by the following account of the fishing to be obtained in them, given by the 

 Hon. F. Walpole : " The fishing afforded the best return for labour, and a boat might be 

 filled in four hours with hook and line only. Fish swarmed of every size and colour, and 

 seemingly of every variety of appetite, for they took any bait. The bottom was literally lined 

 with crawfish of a large size ; some must have weighed five pounds at least. There needed no 

 hook a. piece of anything let down on a string to the bottom was enough ; they saw it, 

 .grasped it, and kept their hold till you had seized them by their long feelers and borne them 

 into the boa.t, where they crawled about and extended their feelers as if in search of more bait. 

 . We had crawfish for breakfast, crawfish for dinner, crawfish for supper, and crawfish 

 for any incidental meal we could cram in between." The coral reefs fringing the island of 

 Mauritius afford shelter to numbers of the family of crawfish, which in both size and splendour 

 of colouring far excel those taken in our seas. 



The prawn and shrimp are included in. the same order as the lobster and the crab, and 

 species of these crustaceans are found in all seas. They are the scavengers of the ocean, and 

 pick and devour any dead matter in the sea ; hence they are particularly valuable in the 

 aquarium. The art of shrimping will no doubt be familiar to all our readers, from visits made 

 to our south-coast watering-places. In tropical climates the prawn attains the size of a small 

 lobster up to nine or ten inches in length, three being considered sufficient for a meal. 

 Prawns are sold in Dublin six and seven inches in length, and are considered splendid feeding. 



