ON CRUSTACEA. 313 



We shall now take leave of the decapod order of Crustacea, 

 by a brief notice of the prawns and shrimps, Pal^MON and 

 Crangon. 



The latter are very distinct from the former by several cha- 

 racters. They are, as is well known, in great estimation for 

 the table, and they are also used as bait in fishing. Their 

 ordinary movements are forward, and by jumps ; but when they 

 fear any danger, they escape by running backwards. They 

 live on little animals, which they seize with their claws, and 

 on such as are dashed by the waves against the rocks ; but 

 they are themselves the prey of a great number of marine 

 fishes, aquatic birds, echini, asterioe, &c. Their flesh is less 

 esteemed than that of the prawns or palsemoUj with which 

 they have often been confounded. 



The palamons, or prawns, appear to belong to the division 

 of decapod Crustacea, which the Greeks named Karis, and 

 the Latins have rendered by the word Squilla. They must, 

 however, be carefully distinguished from the squilla of Fa- 

 bricius, which belongs to the order of Stomapods. They are 

 marine Crustacea, which in the summer frequent the mouths of 

 rivers ; they are also found in salt and brackish marshes ; they 

 are fished for by means of a net, in the form of a sac, attached 

 squarely to the end of a pole, or with large nets with close 

 meshes, which are thrown to a distance into the sea, and 

 which bring back innumerable quantities of them to the shore. 

 As these animals approach very closely to the beach, it is 

 sufficient, if the first means be employed, to enter into the 

 water as far as the waist, to plunge the net there, and to drag 

 it before one in returning to land. 



Olivier tells us, that in the Levant they salt the large 

 species, which they preserve in large baskets, constructed 

 principally of the leaves of the palm-tree, and that they are 

 sent in this state to Constantinople, Smyrna, and into all the 

 towns of Turkey, where the Greeks and Armenians consume a 



