THE MILLER'S THUMB — THE CRAYFISH. 349 



traction, especially if bits of frog's flesh are among the 

 baits, and he squeezes and worms his way into the 

 treacherous fascines, which the cray-fishers haul up before 

 he can find his way out again. Baited traps too, after 

 the fashion of eel-traps, made of common willow-wands, 

 or baskets like those used to catch crabs and lobsters, are 

 also successful snares for the cray. 



How strange it is that so little is thought in England 

 of the cray gastronomically ! In France, where ecrevisses 

 are naturally abundant, and are also extensively pro- 

 pagated by artificial means, they are highly esteemed, and 

 most rightly so, for the meat from the tail is a veritable 

 " bonne bouche," and the rest of the little crustacean is 

 " pretty sucking.'" In Paris enormous numbers are 

 eaten every day — the autumn is the true cray season — 

 and they are as acceptable in the majority of other 

 continental towns where gourmets do most congregate. 

 The variety of ways of treating them for the table is 

 infinite, but their chief use is for the celebrated potage a 

 la bisque. The ancient Greeks knew their virtues, and 

 Alexandrian crays were esteemed above others, as our 

 " Native Whitstables " are above " Commons." The 

 Eomans, too, appreciated them, and served them in a 

 hundred ways. And yet here in England in the latter 

 half of the nineteenth century we despise them, and 

 hardly care to use them even for " garnishing," though 

 for this purpose there is hardly anything in nature which 

 can be manipulated to better effect ! 



