365 



crustacean, Scyllarus arctus, to which I have alluded was 

 found by my friend the late Mr. Jonathan Couch in the 

 stomach of a cod. The only specimen I ever saw of a crab 

 called the long-legged portunus (P. longipes) I obtained 

 from the stomach of a dorse. But specimens thus obtained 

 are of course not available to us as food. We have recog- 

 nised the value of the larger species, and passed no end 

 of laws to protect them in their earlier stages. For about 

 three families we have made close times and size-rules, and 

 all the rest of it. I do not know but that in some districts 

 these things may be beneficial, but I do f know that the 

 Commissioners who inquired into the matter found that 

 there existed off the Land's End one solid bed of crab and 

 lobster deep-sea fishing ground of at least 200 square miles 

 in extent ; and they thought, and I think with them, that it 

 will take a good many centuries to exhaust that field by 

 any method of fishing. The crustaceans of that district 

 and the coal of England will be exhausted much about the 

 same time. I am not aware that any fishing ground 

 approaching this in extent exists elsewhere in Great 

 Britain, and I approve of the legislation which has taken 

 place. Where the area of production, and therefore the 

 area of fishing, is limited, protection is absolutely necessary 

 if the efficiency of that particular fishery is to be main- 

 tained. By actual experiment I have ascertained that a 

 common edible crab (Cancer fagurus) measuring three 

 inches across the carapace, or back, turns out one ounce and 

 a half of meat available for food, whilst a crab of four inches 

 across the carapace (a size which a three-inch crab would 

 probably attain in its next year of growth) turns out four 

 and a half ounces of meat available for food. Clearly 

 therefore the young crab should be protected, but the 

 enforcement of protection by law is very difficult. It 



