CHAPTER X. 



THE SHRIMP AND THE PRAWN. 



" Down on the shore, the sunny shore, 



Where the salt smell cheers the land ; 

 Where the tide moves bright under countless light, 



And the surge on the glittering strand." ALLINGHAM. 



jjVERYBODY is familiar with the SHRIMP, 

 both in its living condition, when it darts to 

 and fro in the shallow waters, as if animated 

 by some internal electricity, and as an edible, 

 when, after boiling, it assumes a particularly agreeable 

 flavour, and a not less agreeable colour. 



How many millions of this crustacean are devoured at 

 the breakfast-tables and in the tea-gardens of London 

 alone, to say nothing of our English watering-places, 

 where " tea and shrimps " meets the eye at every corner, 

 or of our larger cities, into which it is now introduced by 

 the extant facilities of railway communication from all 

 parts of the British coast, we cannot pretend to calculate. 

 Think of Greenwich, Gravesend, Margate, Ramsgate, 

 where nearly all your excursionists are seen provided with 

 a bag of "shrimps"; think of your sea-side resorts, and 

 the legions caught and consumed by professional and 



