96 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



the shore, especially where the offal from board- 

 ing houses or hotels is thrown into the water. It 

 is counted poor sport when an afternoon's crab- 

 bing does not produce thirty or forty crabs. 

 On calm days, the boys often catch their bas- 

 ketful by watching the water along the sides of 

 the docks ; the crabs swim on the surface in 

 search of the shrimps and minnows that hide in 

 the grass and sea-weeds that grow upon the 

 spiles. 



The money value of the crab, even here, 

 where they can be caught by wholesale, is 

 sufficient to cause many of the fishermen to 

 make a business of " shedding " them in con- 

 finement. Fair hard-shell crabs are worth, even 

 upon the dock here, thirty cents a dozen, while 

 for " shedders " or soft-shells, a dollar a dozen 

 is not considered exorbitant. This high price 

 of soft-shell crabs has resulted in a regular busi- 

 ness of keeping in floating boxes or " cars " such 

 crabs as are about to shed their shells. An ex- 

 pert can tell the crab that is going to shed al- 

 most without looking at him. By dint of ques- 

 tioning every man within two miles of here who 

 owns a car I think that I can tell some crabs 

 that are going to shed. To the inexperienced 



