146 



zooLoar 



account of overfishing. The crayfish is not as much used 

 for food in America as in Europe. In Paris it is so much 

 esteemed that the enormous crayfish farms throughout France 

 are unable to supplj' that citj'; consequently crayfishes are 



imported from Germany. 

 In America, it is our French 

 population mainly that 

 makes a market for the 

 crayfish. 



Of the crabs which reach 

 cm- market the most im- 

 portant is the blue crab. 

 Tliese crabs are kejit moored 

 in floating boxes until they 

 have molted, and then they 

 are sent to market as soft- 

 shelled crabs. The value of 

 the blue-crab fisheries on the 

 Atlantic and Gulf coasts was almost half a million dollars. 

 The shore-crabs (Cancer) are fittle eaten in the United States.' 

 The shrimps and prawns have within recent years begun to 

 appear in large numbers in the Eastern markets. For many 

 j'ears the Pacific species have been dried and shipped by the 

 Chinese in large quantities to China. 



Development of Lobsters. — Lobsters lay eggs in July and 

 August. In the fall thej^ migrate to deep water, and pass the 



Fig. 14.5. — Talorcheslia longicornis, tlio 

 beach flea. Nat. .size. Photo, by 

 W. H. C. P. 



' Yery unfortunate is the destruction of the "kinc-crali" (Limulus), which 

 is only distantly related to the Decapoda. In Delaware Bay they arc caught 

 in great numbers and ground up as fertilizer. .\s they are taken only during 

 the breeding season, they arc being rapidly exterminated. The American 

 Limulus belongs to an order entirely unrepresented on the European coast 

 (Fig. 146). 



