Part 1

CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE.

CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE,

_GATHERED AMONGST THE ROCKS AT THE SEA-SHORE, BY THE RIVERSIDE, AND IN THE FOREST_.

BY W. B. LORD, R.A.

AUTHOR OF “SEA-FISH, AND HOW TO CATCH THEM,” “THE SILK WORM BOOK.” ETC. ETC.

LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE. 1867.

LONDON: R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.

PREFACE.

What say you to a ramble among the fairy rock pools, weed-covered ledges, and gem-decked parterres bordering the gardens of the sea? Where ocean plants and flowrets of a thousand hues and tints wave their trailing tendrils, and unfold their feathery fronds, in the crystal waters, and to an expedition to far-off lands and tropic islands raised from the sea’s depths by the mighty labours of the tiny coral insect; where the tough roots of the graceful, fern-like palms, are ever bathed by the snow-white foam, and where the fresh sea breeze, sings merrily through the grove, to the deep-toned thunder of the surf as it breaks on the wide-stretching reef, and is scattered in a rainbow shower far within the still lagunes beyond its rampart-like borders. We do not journey thus far to gather gold, gems, or pearls, neither is our object warlike, although we purpose visiting the mailed hosts in and about their strongholds, and investigating the economy of the submarine armour-clads, in their own harbours. Should the adventure be to your taste, we will, together, explore the keeps, caverns, and points of vantage in which some of these sea champions reside, inspect the armories with which they are furnished, and note the nature and quality of their equipment. As man makes war on his fellow-man, and devises not only weapons of offence and destruction, but shields and defensive armour wherewith to protect himself, so nature--from whom many of the most perfect examples of both have been borrowed by the human race--furnishes to the swordfish, the long and sharp rapier, with which he deals out death to the huge, and mighty whale; the beautifully barbed spear to the _sting ray_, and the dagger-like spines which arm so many of the freebooters of the sea: the massive mail of the turtle; the castles of exquisite design in which the shell-bearing molluscs dwell, and the armour of proof possessed by the crustaceæ, are all fashioned by the same skilled hand; and so marvellously perfect and admirable are their adaptation to the purposes for which they are intended, that man, with all his boasted intelligence, can only wonder, admire, and endeavour to imitate.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CRABS 1

SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS 73

LOBSTERS 90

RIVER CRAYFISH 106

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

A PARTY OF “OU-OU” HUNTERS _Frontispiece._

“CANCER,” A SIGN OF THE ZODIAC 1

A CRAB IN TESSELATED PAVEMENT 2

“BABY CRABS,” OR ZOËA 4, 5

LARGE EDIBLE CRAB (_Cancer pagurus_) 8

CRAB POT 9

A “BECUED CREEPER” 11

FISH-HOOK FASTENINGS 12

LOOP SLIP 13

STONE HITCH 13

FRAME REEL 15

GUT KNOT 16

KNIFE TWISTER 17

FISHING LEADS 20

TRAVELLER LINE 21

HARBOUR CRAB (_Carcinus maenas_) 28

VELVET SWIMMING CRAB (_Portunus puber_) 30

COMMON SLENDER SPIDER CRAB (_Stenorynchus tenuirostris_) 33

_Pagurus Bernhardus_ 34

VENUS’S FLOWER-BASKET (_Euplectella speciosa_) 36

COMMON PEA CRAB (_Pinnotheres pisum_) 42

PINNA PEA CRAB (_P. veterum_) 43

THE “OU-OU,” OR COCOA-NUT CRAB (_Birgus latro_) 46

THE EUROPEAN LAND CRAB (_Thelphusa fluviatilis_) 56

COMMON SAND SHRIMP (_Crangon vulgaris_) 74

THE DREDGE 75

SAND SHRIMP NET 76

POLE SHRIMP NET 78

PRAWN NET 80

COMMON PRAWN AND PARASITE 86

THE COMMON ENGLISH LOBSTER (_Homarus vulgaris_) 90

LOBSTER TRAP 91

HATCHING TROUGH (French) 92

PAN AND TUB ARRANGEMENT 93

NORWAY LOBSTER (_Nephrops Norvegicus_) 95

SPINED LOBSTER, OR CRAY (_Palinurus vulgaris_) 100

THE COMMON RIVER CRAY (_Astacus fluviatilis_) 106

INTRODUCTION.

The crustaceans, to whose homes we propose bending our steps, have some strange and note-worthy peculiarities of form, structure, and habits. Instead of, like ordinary creatures, having skeletons _in them_, on which their tissues are disposed (much as fashionable milliners arrange the captivating raiment of the fair), they, in an apparently perverse and independent spirit, adopt a custom of their own, which to us would, to say the very least of it, prove most uncomfortable and inconvenient, and wear their skeletons _outside_ instead of _in_; and although fashions do not (so far as our experience has gone) change in the realms of King Neptune, and no startling announcement meets the eager eye of Mrs. Crab, or the charming Misses Lobster, that a sweet new thing in skeletons has just arrived at the emporium of Sponge, Limpet, and Co. Limited, no crustacean lady or gentleman ever thinks of being content with one, for the term of her or his natural life; but as the external coverings become worn, and feel uncomfortably circumscribed, a restlessness, and yearning for variety is felt; and, like Professor Owen, their longings are for _a new skeleton_, and, like that gifted anatomist, rest not, until one is obtained. Unlike the page who, in a complete suit of armour, accompanied his noble master to the Holy Wars, and, as the legend goes, returned after years of absence, a dwarf, from having nothing else to wear, our friends are more prolific in expedient, as will be seen by those who investigate.

CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE.

CRABS.

From the very earliest periods of the world’s history the family of Crab appears to have been well known and much respected, and the Zodiac would be incomplete without its “_Cancer_.” The picture from which the accompanying illustration is taken was drawn by an artist of the thirteenth century, and appears as an embellishment in a Prayer-book which afterwards became the property of Queen Mary, and is now in the British Museum. It serves to show the idea entertained in this country of that particular sign at the period referred to. Those remarkably odd fellows the early Romans, even in their time, were not the sort of folks to overlook or heedlessly pass by the merits of so distinguished a gentleman as Mr. Cancer. He was well known and highly appreciated in the Seven-hilled City long before Art, except as brought to bear on the delineation of rude and uncouth patterns on the skins of the inhabitants, was known in this country. But when the restless Roman gentry, before referred to, cast their lot on a distant shore, and settled in the savage British Isles, they bore with them memories not to be effaced or treated lightly. Tesselated pavements in Cancer’s honour were elaborately wrought, and carefully laid down by them in the villas they here built for themselves. The accompanying illustration represents a portion of one of these pavements discovered at Cirencester in the year 1783.[1]

[1] A Roman oyster-knife was found buried not far from the site of one of these ancient villas.

A great deal of this esteem, it is to be feared, somewhat resembled the great affection professed by a chief of the Feejee Islands for a very good-looking little midshipman of one of Her Majesty’s ships cruising among those fertile but questionable retreats. “I love him very much,” said the dusky potentate, “because he is so plump, and would make such a delicious roast with palm-top stuffing.” Apicius loved Crab because he was good in many ways. Hear what he says of Crab sausages: “Boil some of these animals, reduce them to a pulp; mix with this some spikenard, garum, pepper, and eggs; give to this the ordinary shape of sausages, place them on a stove or gridiron; and you will by this means obtain a delicate and tempting dish.” He also informs us that a Crab may be served whole, boiled, and accompanied by a seasoning of pepper, cummin, and rue, which the cook skilfully mixes with garum, honey, oil, and vinegar. Later on in history we find our friend Cancer depicted in heraldic devices, and among the armorial bearings of many influential families. So we see that his lineage is an ancient one. The family to which he belongs is extremely numerous, and it is with the peculiarities of some of its members that we shall now have to deal.

Among all the curious and quaint forms of animal life to be found in the sea, few for grotesque oddity can equal the baby Crabs, or _Zoëa_, as they are sometimes called. These interesting infants are not the least like their papa or mamma, and no respectable or fully-matured male or female Crab would ever own them as his or her offspring. An elfish little creature is the juvenile Crab, with a head scarcely deserving the name, and a pair of goggle bulls’-eyes as of two policemen’s lanterns rolled into one; a tail vastly too long for him, and an anti-garotte spear, quite as long as his absurd little body, attached to the spot where his coat-collar should be. The annexed illustrations will serve to give some idea of these prepossessing juveniles. They are the portraits of two little cousins. In this case, age, although it alters appearances, affects disposition but little, and, as you turn over some stone, fragment of wreck, or tuft of weed, in search of curiosities, young Master Crab will, in all probability, be found at home, and, like an enraged dentist, ready to do fierce battle against all intruders with his upraised pincers. This is the ill-disposed young gentleman who sends _Lotty_ or _Totty_, with heartrending screams and pinched pettitoes, in wild dismay from the charming shell-floored pool, in which they have been paddling. Master Crab’s internal economy is just as curious as his external skeleton. One pair of jaws one would be disposed to think sufficient for any living creature of reasonable requirements; but he possesses eight, and, instead of exposing his teeth to the examination of the critical in matters of dentition, he carries them safely stowed away in the interior of his stomach, where they would be excessively hard to get at in cases of crustacean tooth-ache. With such appliances as these, the food cannot well be otherwise than perfectly masticated. A Crab’s liver is an odd organ to contemplate, and constitutes a considerable portion of the soft interior of the shell-like box in which the heart and other viscera are lodged. That well-known yellow delicacy known as the _cream_ or _fat_ of the Crab is _liver_, and nothing else. The lungs or gills are formed by those fringe-like appendages popularly known as the _dead men’s fingers_. The shell-shifting process before referred to, is common to all crustaceans; and our friend the Crab, when he feels his corselet getting rather tight for him, manages, by some extraordinary process, not only to extricate himself from it, together with his shell gauntlets and the powerful nippers with which he is provided, but performs other feats, compared with which those of the Davenport Brothers sink into utter insignificance; and we opine that, had those eminent spiritualists been called on to do by the aid of all their shadowy accomplices one half of that which Cancer and his cousins the lobsters and crays do unassisted, no Tom Fool’s knot would have been needed to complete their discomfiture. Not only are the too-constricted shell and claw coverings cast aside, but also the outer cornea of the eyes; the stem sheath of the eyes; the lining of the stomach with the internal teeth; the internal bones of the thorax; the lining membrane of the ear, and that covering the lungs; thus very nearly turning themselves inside out, as well as getting rid of their old suits of clothes. But all these wonderful operations are not performed with the ease with which the chrysalis sets free the painted butterfly, or the village maid, by touch of fairy wand, throws off her homely garb, and steps forth the gauzy glittering columbine in the transformation scene of a pantomime; but are works of time and trouble, the body appearing to dilate within its prison until the coffer-like cover formed by the shell slowly and by degrees gives way, the membranes one by one are torn asunder, the muscular tissue filling up the large claws and pincers undergoes a softening process which admits of its being drawn through the constrictions between the joints, and the crustacean and his old garments part company at last.

Between the loss of the old shell and the secretion of a new one, nothing can be more unenviable than the position occupied by our poor forlorn friend, who, like some fashionable exquisite during a temporary misunderstanding with his tailor, seeks retirement and obscurity. The pert young crablings, inquisitive, troublesome little _gobies_, and irritating prawns, who a short time since treated him with due respect, now pinch his unprotected skin and nibble at his poor defenceless tail in a manner not to be endured; so he shuns society, goes into dock for repairs, and waits for fresh _sheathing_ and his new pincers to grow. These under favourable circumstances soon form, and “Richard is himself again.” It is our opinion that these moultings or changes do not, as some authors have stated, take place at regular and stated intervals in the lives of the larger crustacea, as rapidity of growth in particular individuals would tend to accelerate the period for change, and it appears probable, from the number and size of the marine molluscæ constantly found adhering to the shells of fully-matured specimens (oysters of even six years’ growth having been so discovered), that the changes of shell become less frequent as age advances.

The most important member of the Crab family, in a commercial and gustatory point of view, found in this country, is the large edible Crab of the shops, _Cancer pagurus_, the subject of the annexed illustration; and its capture not only gives employment to an immense number of families along the sea-board of England and its home dependencies, but forms an admirable school for the training of the hardy mariners so much needed for both our navy and mercantile marine. The professional _crabber_ is usually an expert boatman, and line, or rather _hook_-fisher, in addition to his crab-catching powers. There are several methods by which Crabs can be taken, but that usually resorted to for the capture of the kind now under consideration is by _crab pots_, or baskets, woven of unbarked willows.[2] These are contrived much on the principles of the common wire mousetrap, a number of points being arranged in funnel form at the entrance, so as to admit of free ingress, but rendering exit quite a different affair, and one by no means easy of accomplishment. The eel-basket, the salmon-_trip_, and many other fish traps are made in much the same manner, with some modifications as to material and size. Pieces of fish and fish offal are usually used as bait for these contrivances. This is secured within the basket, which, with a heavy stone as a sinker, and a long line with a float attached to it, is lowered down from the boat amongst sunken rocks and in the deep gulfs between reefs, where ledge, crevice, and secret cranny are known to afford hiding-places to the sought-for prey; and here the traps are allowed to rest, sometimes for the night, at others a shorter period, just as convenience or the probability of a take may suggest, when, the float being found and the line hauled in, the pot with its contents are soon safely on board the boat. Where many persons engage in the same occupation, it is necessary, in order to avoid mistakes as to the identity of the traps, to have certain distinguishing marks by which they may be known. Each fisherman, therefore, has his own pattern for the float--one using a single piece of circular form, another, a single square, whilst a third either piles several pieces in conical form, or cuts a peculiarly-formed cross. A plan we strongly recommend to those who wish to amuse themselves by catching Crabs for their own use, is to use a large flat bung, made of stout cork, nail a piece of strong tough wood, such as elm, to the under surface, in order to prevent splitting, burn a hole with a hot iron large enough for the float line to pass through, tie a knot or work a Turk’s head on the end of the line, paint the upper surface of the cork white, and then burn your initials deeply into the cork with a branding iron. The crabbers as a body are rarely dishonest, but little mistakes are at times made when crab-pots are insufficiently marked by the owner, and Crabs at a premium; still there are very few so utterly indifferent to the voice of public reprobation as to “_haul another man’s pots_,” a crime in the eyes of a fishing community pretty much on a par with stealing a sheep or robbing a church. Should you embark in the crabbing line, take our earnest advice: provide yourself with a boat with plenty of beam; have every rope, net, and line you use tanned; and never let your boat’s _creeper_, or “killick,” go on rocky ground without making use of the precaution shown in the accompanying illustration, known as “Becueing,” or the loss of creeper and _creeper_ line into the bargain will be very likely to follow.

[2] Galvanized iron wire has been much advocated as a material for their construction.

It will be seen, on referring to the above cut, that the line after having been secured to the ring at the head of the creeper shank, as at A, is brought down and passed under one of the claws as at B. It is again brought up until it meets the ring, to which it is secured with a piece of common twine doubled, or a bit of single spun yarn, as at C. It will be at once seen that, on either of the claws becoming fixed in a rock or under a ledge (a matter of constant occurrence when fishing from a moored boat), by pulling heavily on the line the twine or yarn _stopper_ gives way, and the creeper becomes immediately free by being capsized, and can then be readily hauled in.

To safely bring a large fish to basket after it is hooked requires skill, patience, and proper appliances. Hooks and their attachments to the traces should be well looked to before commencing operations. There are two modes of fastening on fish-hooks. One, as in the foregoing cut A, is with well-waxed silk or thread, binding the hook-wire and trace firmly and neatly together, and then finishing off by passing the end of the lashing back under three or four turns of itself, _vide cut_ B, and then drawing it tightly home. The other plan is by _half hitches_, two or three of which are turned over the shaft of the hook below the flattened end usually made to sea-hooks; when drawn tight the turns of line may be pressed up compactly together with the thumb nail. The accompanying cut C will better explain the mode of putting on the hitches than would any written description. Both traces and lines should have loops made in the ends; these, when run together by what is called _the loop slip_, shown in the above illustration, make a very neat and secure fastening. Stones are conveniently fastened on as sinkers to lines mounted with many hooks; by the plan shown in the above cut, no knots are made, and when the stone is removed the loop falls out and leaves the line as before its attachment. Large powerful fish should never be lifted into the boat by the tackle. A wide, short-handled landing-net, and _gaff_, made from a large-sized fish-hook, lashed to a staff, form an essential part of the equipment.