92 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



sary. There is always a safe harbor within 

 twenty minutes' sail. 



Our crabbing is enough of a resource to be 

 worth writing about. After August it is at its 

 best. Then the few summer boarders and cot- 

 tagers who linger after the middle of Septem- 

 ber join with the native in hunting the scaven- 

 ger of these waters, counting a day lost which 

 does not bring at least a score of big crabs to an 

 end, which I hope is not " something linger- 

 ing." As an earnest believer in the value of 

 the late Mr. Bergh's work, I have tried to find 

 out by experiment exactly how lingering is the 

 death by boiling water to which the crab's 

 preference for stale fish and other bits of 

 kitchen offal finally brings him. Repeated 

 experiments show that death is almost in- 

 stantaneous, if it is true, as is so often said, that 

 a crab lets go his hold only when dying. In 

 order to clear one's conscience upon this matter 

 it is necessary to submit the crab to what may be 

 extremely painful proceedings. Let a strong 

 crab get a good hold upon a piece of rope or 

 any other soft material not too intimately con- 

 nected with yourself, and lower himself slowly 

 into boiling water ; the crab will let his claws 



