314 
SUPPLEMENT 
great quantity of them during their Lent, and other days of 
abstinence ; but these species, for the most part, belong to 
the genus Penceus. 
The flesh of these Crustacea is tender, sweet, agreeable, and 
regarded as a nutritive aliment, and easy of digestion. The 
use of it is recommended to persons attacked with marasmus, 
or threatened with pulmonary consumption. A great quantity 
of them is caught in the mouths of the Seine, the Loire, and 
the Garonne. “ The mode in which they are cooked there,” 
says M. Bose, “ is by putting them on the fire, with salt and 
vinegar.” Every part of them may be eaten, in consequence 
of the thinness of the testa. The flesh of these animals corrupts 
very speedily after their death, which takes place almost on 
their issuing from the water, and the odour which they then 
exhale, is, like that of other Crustacea in the same stale, 
of the most insupportable kind. They must, therefore, he 
cooked immediately, to preserve them for some days. The 
females, when they are charged with eggs, which takes place 
in spring, are more esteemed and more delicate. These Crus- 
tacea are also employed in line-fishing, and in some places, 
as in the United States, according to M. Bose, this is the only 
use which is made of them. 
Several fish are extremely fond of them, and devour a pro- 
digious quantity. Accordingly they repair in great numbers 
to the coasts, and the mouths of rivers, a little time after the 
arrival of the prawns, and afterwards disappear with them, on 
the return of fine weather. 
Nature compensates for the destruction of these Crustacea, 
by a prodigious fecundity. The females lay thousands of 
eggs, and the species is preserved. These little animals, be- 
sides, swim with so much celerity, that many of them escape 
from the pursuit of their enemies. They usually proceed 
forward, and swim by means of the false fin-like feet which 
they have under the tail ; but in danger they accelerate their 
13 
