Habitat of crabs. Crabs and lobsters inhabit somewhat similar localities at the bottom of the 

 sea. Crabs, however, affect the sandy plateaux rather than the rocks them- 

 selves. The large crabs live on rocky bottoms, the smaller crabs on stony 

 and sandy bottoms. On the coast of Cornwall large lobsters are caught in the 

 very deep crevices far among the rocks, which are called " pills." If the pot 

 slips into a deep crevasse large lobsters are nearly sure to be caught. 

 Crabs travelling. Crabs are very fast walkers when on the march. They progress, as it were, 

 on tip-toe, supporting their heavy carriage-like bodies by means of their eight 

 legs, each of which is terminated by a spike. It is difficult to follow the 

 movements of their eight legs, more difficult than to follow the movement of 

 the four legs of ahorse. The eight jointed legs, each with its spike, enable 

 the crabs to climb among the rocks like great spiders. 



Crabs also are travellers, as proved by the following cases : — 



Mr. Howard Fox informed us that "A small trading craft was taking 

 " shell-fish from Mullion to Plymouth, and she sank off Fowey. Shortly 

 " afterwards a fisherman at Mullion caught some of the identical crabs in his 

 " pots at Mullion, at distance of over 40 miles. He knew the crabs were the 

 " same he had previously captured, because he tied their claws with a peculiar 

 " knot, and the knots were still on them. Other instances of this kind have 

 " happened in this neighbourhood." 



Mr. Henry Lee writes : — A very singular instance of a lobster finding its 

 way back to its former habitat came to my knowledge some time ago. The 

 stock box belonging to a fishmonger was overturned during a heavy gale, 

 and the fastenings broken by the force of the sea. Notwithstanding that 

 the prisoners confined in it had their claws bound together with twine to 

 prevent their damaging each other, they all made their escape. Some were 

 recaptured, and one of them, which was recognised by his having a broken 

 " thumb " to one of his claws, was taken six days afterwards three miles from 

 the scene of the accident, and within a few yards of the hole where he was 

 originally caught. The string was still tightly secured both to his large claws, 

 so that he could not have used them on his journey. 



Mr. Laughrin, the coastguard officer at Polperro, in Cornwall, informed us 

 that "crabs go from place to place, and sometimes travel 10, 12, or 14 miles. 

 " Some crabs got out of a store pot, and he found them again over seven miles 

 " out at sea in a few days." 



Again, Mr. Climo, of Polruan, stated that crabs had been marked and 

 found two miles east of the harbour in about a week; they were known 

 because they were " nicked crabs." 



On 16th October another witness marked the backs of a few crabs with 

 the initials W W and put them back inshore. On 27th November these crabs 

 were caught again two miles seaward. 

 Crabs in deep In the winter time the crabs retire from the shallow water to the deep sea. 



They are there picked up by the trawl nets in considerable numbers during 

 the cold rough weather. I fancy they hybernate, (insect-like again,) burying 

 themselves in the sand. 



In December last I received a deep-sea crab from Dr. Norman, of Yarmouth. 

 It was a she crab caught by Mr. James Burgess, fishing master. He states that 

 many large crabs are taken by trawlers in the North Sea fishery, 80 miles east 

 of Grimsby. During the winter months the depth of water is about 30 

 fathoms on an average. Nearly 500 crabs are taken in the voyage of eight 

 weeks by trawlers. Most of those caught out at sea have lost a claw. Some 

 of them are very large and covered with barnacles. A somewhat similar in- 

 stance of crabs being found m the deep-sea can be found at page 46 of the 

 Evidence (England and Wales). As the spring comes on, the crabs approach 

 the shore, arriving from their winter quarters in the deep sea. 

 Sexes of crabs. The sexes of crabs are easily distinguished. Thus a male crab has a small 



narrow tail, whereas a female has a very broad tail, which is called the apron. 

 In two crabs of exactly the same size across, the tail of the male crab measured 

 seven eighths of an inch across, while that of the female measured two 

 inches and one eighth across, see Diagram No. 7. The tail of the female 

 is marginated with hair ; the tail of the male has no hair. The difference of 

 the size of the tail in the two sexes can be seen from the engraving. Female 

 crabs are called by the following names : Queens, Humps, Ran Hens, Seeding 

 Hens, Doup Crabs, Pouch Crabs. The claws of the female are smaller 



