292 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



and it contained a mass of minute eggs equal in size to a 

 man's hand ; these were so minute that a very small por- 

 tion of them, picked off with the point of a pin, when 

 placed on a bit of glass, and counted by the aid of a power- 

 ful microscope, numbered over sixty, each appearing of the 

 size of a red currant, and not at all unlike that fruit : so 

 far as I could guess the eggs were not nearly ripe. I also 

 examined about the same time a quantity of shrimp eggs ; 

 and it is curious that, while there are the cock and hen 

 lobster, I never saw any difference in the sex of the 

 shrimps : all that I handled, amounting to hundreds, were 

 females, and all of them were laden with spawn, the eggs 

 being so minute as to resemble grains of the finest sand. 



Although the crustacean family counts its varieties by 

 thousands, and contains members of all sizes, from minute 

 animalcule to gigantic American crabs and lobsters, and 

 ranges from the simplest to the most complex forms, yet 

 the edible varieties are not at all numerous. The largest 

 of these are the lobster (Astacus marinus) and the crab 

 ( Cancer pagurus) ; and river and sea cray-fish may also be 

 seen in considerable quantities in London shell-fish shops ; 

 and as for common shrimps (Crangon vulgaris) and prawns 

 (^Palsemon serratis), they are eaten in myriads. The violet 

 or marching crab of the West Indies, and the robber crab 

 common to the islands of the Pacific, are also esteemed as 

 great delicacies of the table, but are unknown in this 

 country except by reputation. 



********* 



Mr. Cancer pagurus is watched as he bustles out for his 

 evening promenade, and, on being deftly pitched upon his 

 back by means of a pole, he indignantly seizes upon it with 

 all his might, and the stick being shaken a little has the 

 desirable effect of causing Mr. Crab to cling thereto with 

 great tenacity, which is, of course, the very thing desired 



