WITH FISH-LINES AND NETS. 97 



all crabs look alike ; they are crawling creatures 

 with a surprising grip. Few persons, and no 

 women, ever get near enough to a crab to 

 admire his superb coloring and the delicacy of 

 his work upon a piece of old fish. But the stu- 

 dent who has listened to a dozen life-long ex- 

 perts and has tried to reconcile their wholly 

 opposite accounts of the nature of the animal, 

 know that there are crabs and crabs. Turn 

 a dozen crabs over on their backs and they 

 may easily be divided into three classes. One 

 set will be perfectly white, with the " breast- 

 bone " or plate, a narrow strip ; another set, 

 having the breastplate expanded so as almost 

 to cover the whole shell and streaked in dark 

 blue and green ; still others have the narrow 

 breastplate, but the whole under part of the 

 crab is discolored and not a cream-white. The 

 first class comprise crabs that have already shed 

 this year and have grown hard. The second 

 class are the " pocket-books," as the fishermen 

 call them, crabs that will shed no more ; and 

 the third class are those which may shed their 

 shells this year. For eating, the crab with a 

 cream-white color upon the underside is most 

 esteemed. All the very large crabs are likely to 



