Chapter I: 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