A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



and at low-water mark. He himself has only dug out one specimen, 

 having taken others ' stupefied by the cold after frosts at the March 

 spring-tides, washed out at low-water mark.' He suggests that the 

 accompanying form, which was described by Leach as U. deltaura, is 

 the female of TJ. stellata. Bell also believes that the two forms belong 

 to a single species. The hairy pinched-in front and spreading tail-fan 

 of this crustacean, and its imperfectly chelate claws, are noticeable 

 characters. Of another tribe, the Scyllaridea, one family, the Palinurids, 

 is likewise represented here by a single species, since Mr. Guermonprez 

 is able to record the occasional capture at Bognor of the common craw- 

 fish, Palinurus vulgaris, Latreille. 



In the tribe Astacidea the family Nephropsids must not be over- 

 looked, since it comprises a very prominent Sussex crustacean, Astacus 

 gammarus (Linn.) . Upon this, which is better known as the common lobster, 

 Messrs. Buckland and Walpole supply several interesting observations. 

 Buckland in 1875 says, 'A great many small lobsters are sent up [to 

 London] from Bognor, in Sussex, and a few large ones come from Bognor. 

 These smaller kind of Bognor lobsters are in great demand during the 

 season for breakfast and luncheon.' ' He was informed that the Bognor 

 lobster fishery begins about March and ends at Christmas, or earlier in a 

 very cold season. ' When first caught in the early part of the year, the 

 lobster appears sandy and covered with sea-weed and slime ; as the sun 

 gets stronger this comes off, and towards August and September they 

 appear quite clean.' ^ The close season of two or three months is ex- 

 plained as being the time needed by the fishermen for mending their 

 lobster pots. In the evidence given before Buckland and Walpole, John 

 Richards, a fisherman of Bognor, says, ' At the bottom of the sea, close 

 in to shore, there are grass banks with holes like rat or rabbit holes, in 

 which the lobsters live. These banks extend for 20 miles from Selsea 

 to Shoreham in patches. The grass weed grows on mud banks. These 

 mud banks form a breeding ground.' ^ The grass intended is clearly the 

 sea-grass, Zoster a marina. The commissioners themselves say, ' Bognor, 

 on the coast of Sussex, in some respects resembles Budleigh Salterton. 

 There are some rocks called the Owers, 12 miles out to sea, where there 

 is a considerable fishery, and there are no indications of failure on these 

 rocks. But the inshore fishery is in a different condition. The bottom 

 of the sea is a warm plateau of mud and sand covered with weed, which 

 is apparently a nursery for small Crustacea. The smallest lobsters in 

 England are caught on this plateau, and very small crabs are also taken 

 in the immediate neighbourhood off Selsea. The fishermen consider 

 that the lobsters come here from other places for the purpose of repro- 

 duction, and they assert that there are no indications of any diminution 

 in the number of these Crustacea. It is universally admitted, however, 

 that the crab fishery at Selsea is declining in importance, and that there 

 are not one third as many crabs as there used to be. It ought to be 



> Report an the Fisheries of Norfolk, p. 73. * Loc. cit. p. 74. 



5 Report on the Crab and Lobster Fisheries of England and Wales, p. 65. 



256 



