MALACOSTRACA. DECAPODA. 281 



similar situations, where they are numerous, a bait is 

 attached to the end of a small cord, at the other end 

 of which a stone is tied. When the tide flows, the 

 Crab seizes the bait, which it drags to some hole, 

 and the stone which it draws after it closes the en- 

 trance. As a stone may be dragged in the water, 

 which cannot be moved by the same power exerted 

 in a less advantageous manner, the animal finds itself 

 a prisoner. The stone must be large enough to close 

 the entrance of the Crab's hole, and not so heavy 

 as to obstruct its movements.* We have seen boys 

 take the common Shore Crab (Carcinus Moenas) in 

 Poole Harbour, by letting down offal tied to a 

 string among the rocks under water. The Crab 

 seizes it with his claw, and will often suffer him- 

 self to be dragged out rather than let go his hold : 

 in many cases, however, the hold is relinquished 

 the instant the animal rises above the surface. 

 But none of these plans are very efficient. The 

 real crab-fisher uses pots or creels, which are formed 

 of wicker on the same principle as a wire mouse- 

 trap, allowing the entrance but not the exit of 

 the animal ; the aperture, however, in the crab-pot 

 is on the top. Forty or fifty of these are baited 

 with pieces of fish, loaded, and sunk together on a 

 rocky bottom. A line from each pot, attached to 

 a cork at the surface, indicates their position. The 

 silly Crab eagerly rushes in ; but, after feasting on 

 the contained dainty, finds to his annoyance that 

 he cannot get out. The solitude of his prison is, 



* Penny Mag., 1837. 



