12 THE SOUTHERN CLIFFS 



Two or three isolated rocks, covered with green and 

 brown sea- weeds " sea-ferns " would be the more 

 appropriate name for the beautiful submarine fronds 

 lay in succession between high- and low-water mark ; 

 and between these the sand was marked in regular lines 

 with crab-tracks, following, in the main, beaten paths, 

 like rabbit-tracks on the snow. It is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish how many lines of footprints a crab leaves. 

 It has eight small legs and two large ones, which last 

 it usually carries in the air, though when not frightened 

 it also uses them in walking. Consequently a crab- 

 track looks as if a small wheel, with a number of spikes 

 and projections, had been rolled over the sand from 

 rock to rock. Most of these shallow-water crabs are 

 " King-crabs," marked on the back with the distinct 

 outline in profile of a royal crown, with the jewels 

 studding the edges of the arches, exactly as it appears 

 in the water-mark on official paper. Though useless 

 for food, they are caught in numbers by the fishermen 

 as bait for their prawn-pots. The monster crabs which 

 are seen in rows on the slabs of the London fish-shops 

 never live near the shore, but lurk in the seaweed 

 jungles among the submerged rocks out at sea. The 

 puzzle is how they ever get into the crab-pots, for in 

 the largest of these, which are made in certain fixed 

 sizes by the fishermen themselves, according to ancient 

 and established tradition, the aperture at the top is only 

 nine inches wide. Probably the big crabs, when they 

 see any bait which looks and smells particularly nice, 

 creep into the pots sideways. 



