396 SHRIMPS. [CHAP. ix. 



skin ; and its exertions to throw off its old clothes are really 

 as wonderful as those of its larger relatives of the lobster and 

 crab family. There are a great many species of shrimp in 

 addition to the common one ; as, for instance, banded, spinous, 

 sculptured, three-spined, and two-spined. Young prawns, 

 too, are often taken in the " putting-nets" and sold for 

 shrimps. Prawns are caught in some places in pots resembling 

 those used for the taking of lobsters. The prawn exuviates 

 very frequently ; in fact it has no sooner recovered from one 

 illness than it has to undergo another. Although the prawn 

 and the shrimp are exceedingly common on the British coasts, 

 when we consider the millions of these " sea insects/' as they 

 have been called, which are annually consumed at the break- 

 fast tables and in the tea-gardens of London alone (not to 

 speak of those which are greedily devoured in our watering- 

 places, or the few which are allowed to reach the more inland 

 towns of the country), we cannot but wonder where they all 

 come from, or who provides them ; and the problem can only 

 be solved by taking into account the fact that we are sur- 

 rounded by hundreds of miles of a productive seabord, and 

 that thousands of seafaring people, and others as well, make 

 it their business to supply such luxuries to all who can 

 pay for them. It is even found profitable to send these 

 delicacies to England all the way from the remote fisheries of 

 Scotland. 



The art of " shrimping " is well understood all round the 

 English coasts. The mode of capturing this particular member 

 of the Crustacea is by what is called a shrimp-net, formed of a 

 frame of wood and twine into a long bag, which is used as a 

 kind of minature trawl-net ; each shrimping-boat being pro- 

 vided with one or two of these instruments, which, scraping 

 along the sand, compel the shrimp to enter. Each boat is 

 provided with a " well," or store, to contain the proceeds of the 

 nets, and on arrival at home the shrimps are immediately 



