146 CRUSTACEANS. 



fisheries, as a branch of individual industry, and, for the ends of com- 

 merce, are conducted on a considerable scale in places where such ani- 

 mals are most numerous. 



Great numbers are imported for the London market from the coast 

 of Norway ; and some of the Western Isles of Scotland are said to yield 

 60,000 annually. Those alone are considered marketable where the shell 

 extends eight inches, and they are then sold by the captors to the agents 

 for the fisheries or the market, at 3^d. each. 



None but rocky coasts are frequented by lobsters ; which are also 

 the resort of all kinds of crabs, in greater numbers, but of less value. The 

 fishery of the latter is carried on everywhere, on a small scale, through- 

 out the coast, chiefly by those residing in the vicinity of their haunts. The 

 same may be said of the fishery of shrimps and prawns, which abound on 

 wet sandy beaches, wherein they burrow during the recess of the tide. 



Amidst great abundance of crabs, only the claws are reserved for 

 food, the body being thrown away. 



Some seafaring persons devote themselves entirely to this kind of 

 fishery during the season : and I have been assured, that a small boat at 

 Newhaven has taken seventy dozen in a day in May or June. The 

 females, full of roe, are not spared, which proves a great and needless 

 sacrifice of the brood ; nor are the younger crabs an object of any reserve. 



Scarcity, abundance, or the hazard of exterminating the race, are 

 never taken into account, nor any thing but how to secure the greatest 

 number possible. 



It would be well if all fisheries were brought under special regula- 

 tions, which, in such cases as the present, might be attained by prohibit- 

 ing the sale of subjects under certain dimensions. 



None but the Cancer paaurus and the Astacus marinus the Com- 

 mon Crab and Lobster, and on a smaller scale Shrimps, are subjects of 

 interest in Scotland. Others, such as the Cancer mamas, the Shore or 

 Harbour Crab, are an ordinary article of food in some countries, but not 

 here. Vast numbers of these, according to Olivi, are captured in the 

 Adriatic, packed in barrels, and exported. They are taken when in dif- 

 ferent states and stages ; first, on casting the shell while the body is soft ; 



