500 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



resemble the ants on land, doing their work always thoroughly and 

 effectively. We need hardly mention, what is so well known to 

 every reader, that prawns and shrimps are amongst the most esteemed 

 delicacies at our table, and as articles of food occupy no mean place 

 on the fish-stall. At Billingsgate alone, it is hardly credible the 

 immense quantities which arrive and are daily consumed in the 

 Metropolis by all classes of the community. The shrimp, which 

 although the smaller crustacean, is perhaps the finest flavoured of 

 the two, is sold in much larger quantities than its more aristocratic 

 congener, the prawn. The fishery of these savoury comestibles gives 

 occupation not only to regular able-bodied fishermen, who devote 

 themselves to this branch, but also to large numbers of women and 

 children, who with their baskets and small nets may be seen 

 plying their vocation in a multitude of well-known localities on our 

 coasts, especially on the southern and south-eastern shores. To the 

 habitues of Hastings, Southampton, Bognor, &c., there is not a more 

 picturesque or familiar marine picture than to behold a troop of little 

 shrimpers, in their grotesque and somewhat outre equipments, wading 

 patiently knee deep all in a row, as they push before them their 

 pole nets. 



Without giving a detailed technical and anatomical description, 

 which our space will not permit of, we may observe that the common 

 prawn (Palasmon serratus) is about four or five inches long, with a 

 rounded carapace, which is jointed and furnished at the head with 

 numerous long antennae, the eyes being large and round. The tail * 

 is broad and flat, the caudal laminae of which are furnished with long 

 hairs on the terminal margins. The animal is also furnished with 

 several pairs of feet, very slender, and ordinarily bent within them- 

 selves. 



The colour is light grey, spotted and lined with purplish shades. 

 In the water, however, prawns are almost transparent, from the 

 nearly entire absence of carbonate of lime in the carapace ; they are 

 thus very beautiful objects in the marine aquarium, moving as they 

 do like shadows in the water. 



When prawns are boiled, they become of a delicate pink colour, 

 thus adding beauty to the dainty morceaux. 



Like most other kinds of Crustacea, the prawn is much larger in 

 tropical climates. On the coast of South America, for instance, they 





