82 HOW WE CAUGHT IT. 



applied by placing the shell before a fire, and spirits 

 of wine has the same effect. The last fact I learned 

 from experience, and was very sorry that it was a 

 fact, for the red shell quite spoiled the appearance 

 of a dissected cray-fish that was wanted to look nice 

 in a museum. 



Being very delicate food, and, in my opinion, much 

 better than the native lobster, they are much sought 

 after at the proper season, and are sold generally at 

 the rato of half-a-crown for one hundred and twenty. 



There are many modes of catching them, which 

 may be practised indifferently. There are the 

 "wheels," for example, being wicker baskets made 

 on the wire mouse-trap principle, which the cray- 

 fish enters and cannot get out again. Also, there is 

 a mode of fishing for them with circular nets baited 

 with a piece of meat. A number of these nets are 

 laid at intervals along the river bank, and after a 

 while are suddenly pulled out of the water, bringing 

 with them the cray-fish that were devouring the 

 meat. 



But the most interesting and exciting mode of 

 cray-fish catching is by getting into the water, and 

 pulling them out of their holes. 



Cray-fish take to themselves certain nooks and 

 crannies, formed by the roots of willows or other 

 trees that grow on the bank ; and they not un- 

 frequently take possession of holes which have been 

 scooped by the water-rat. The hand is thrust into 



