63 



prescribed limits in regard to the distance from land, for the 

 remainder of the year. The time now proposed for the res- 

 triction of the trawl fishery, is founded on the well known 

 habits and seasons of spawning of the fishes most in danger, 

 and which are also the most esteemed for the table ; and 

 though, after all, it mnst happen that multitudes will be des- 

 troyed, by no other regulation will so large a number be en- 

 abled to escape. Facility of conviction must also be regarded 

 as an important part of any protective enactment. 



CRUSTACEANS. 



The class of creatures termed Crustaceans, in which are 

 included the families of Crabs, Lobsters and Shrimps, may be 

 popularly described as animals without a vertebral internal 

 skeleton, but having the body divided into distinct rings move- 

 able on each other by joints; the integument forming a crust ; 

 antennae, or feelers, and eyes separately on foot stalks; jaws 

 of numerous jointed portions for chewing, the slit of the mouth 

 perpendicular. The legs with joints, the first pair with handsj 

 Tent at the extremity of the body. 



The Stalk-eyed Crustaceans to which our enumeration is 

 confined, possess a carapace or shelly crust above the thorax, 

 within which the principal organs of life are protected .; the 

 branchiae or gills for breaLhing, are not branched ; legs at the 

 thorax. 



They are arranged by Dr. Milne Edwards, the last Natu- 

 ralist who has extensively studied them, in two great sections, 

 of which the separate characters are these: 



DECAPOD STALK-EYED CRUSTACEANS, with the 

 rings of the head and thorax united into a carapace ; an- 

 tennas commonly four; branchiae in a cavity protected and 

 concealed by the carapace. 



STOMAPOD STALK-EYED CRUSTACEANS, destitute 

 of thoracic branchiae in interior cavities. 



Decapod Crustaceans are again divided into three families : 



BRACHYURES,or Short Tailed Decapods, the tail or more 

 properly the abdomen, slightly developed ; without legs 

 formed for swimming, and destitute -of fanlike caudal plates 



ANAMOURS, the abdomen wtll developed, with a portion 

 permanently bent under the thorax, with terminal caudal 

 plates. 



MACROURES, the abdomen well developed and extended, 

 having paddles beneath, and terminal fanshaped caudal 

 plates. 



