276 SHEIMPING. 



of its larger relatives of the lobster and crab family. TLere are 

 a great many species of shrimp in addition to the common one ; 

 as, for instance, banded, spiaous, sculptured, three-spined, and 

 two-spined. Young prawns, too, are often taken in the " putting- 

 nets " and sold for shrimps. Prawns are caught in some places 

 in pots resembling those used for the taking of lobsters. The 

 prawn exuviates very frequently ; in fact, it has no sooner re- 

 covered from one illness than it has to undergo another. 

 Although the prawn and the shrimp are exceedingly common on 

 the British coasts, when we consider the millions of these " sea 

 insects," as they have been called, which are annually consumed 

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

 (not to speak of those which are greedily devoured in our 

 watering-places, or the few which are allowed to reach the more 

 inland towns of the country), we cannot but wonder where they 

 all come from, or who provides them ; and the problem can only 

 be solved by taking into account the fact that we are sur- 

 rounded by hundreds of miles of a productive seaboard, and 

 that thousands of seafaring people, and others as well, make 

 it their business to supply such luxuries to all who can 

 pay for them. It is even found profitable to send these 

 delicacies to England all the way from the remote fisheries of 

 Scotland. 



The art of " shrimping " is well understood all round the 

 English coasts. The mode of capturing this particular member 

 of the Crustacea is by what is called a shrimp-net, formed of a 

 frame of wood and twine into a long bag, which is. used as a 

 kind of miniature trawl-net; each shrimping-boat being pro- 

 vided with one or two of these instruments, which, scraping 

 along the sand, compel the shrimp to enter. Each boat is 

 provided with a " well," or store, to contain the proceeds of the 

 nets, and on arrival at home the shrimps are immediately 

 boiled for the London or other markets. The shrimpers are 

 rather ill-used by the trade. Of the many thousand gallons 

 sent daily to London, they only get an infinitesimal portion of 

 the money produce. The retaU price in London is four shil- 

 lings per gallon, out of which the producer is understood to get 

 only threepence ! I have been told that the railways charge at 

 the extraordinary rate of £9 a ton for the carriage of this 

 delicacy to London. It is an interesting sight to watch the 

 shrimpers at their work, and such of my readers as can obtain a 

 brief holidav should run down to Leieh. or some nearer fishins 



