I had seen many a rope of onions, but this was the first time I had seen a rope of crabs. On inquiry, I learned that the boys had taken two dozen animals in about two hours. When any of the green-bellied crabs happened to be poked out, they were allowed to escape back again as quickly as they pleased.
With poor Cancer pagurus the case was different,—every specimen, as soon as caught, being strung up, and doomed to 'death in the pot.'
The above, I need scarcely state, is not the usual manner of fishing for crabs, the approved plan being to take them in what are termed crab-pots, 'a sort of wicker-trap made, by preference, of the twigs of the golden willow (salex vitellina), at least in many parts of the coast, on account, as they say, of its great durability and toughness. These pots are formed on the principle of a common wire mousetrap, but with the entrance at the top; they are baited with pieces of fish, generally of some otherwise useless kind, and these are fixed into the pots by means of a skewer. The pots are sunk by stones attached to the bottom, and the situation where they are dropped is indicated, and the means of raising them provided, by a long line fixed to the creel, or pot, having a piece of cork attached to the free end of the line; these float the line, and at the same time serve to designate the owners of the different pots—one, perhaps, having three corks near together towards the extremity of the line, and two distant ones—another may have one cork fastened crosswise, another fastened together, and so on. It is, of course, for their mutual security that the fishermen abstain from poaching on their neighbour's property; and hence we find that stealing from each other's pots is a crime almost wholly unknown amongst them.'
'The fishery for these crabs constitutes an important trade on many parts of the coast. The numbers which are annually taken are immense; and, as the occupation of procuring them is principally carried on by persons who are past the more laborious and dangerous pursuits of general fishing, it affords a means of subsistence to many a poor man who, from age or infirmity, would be unable without it to keep himself and his family from the workhouse.'[3]
[CHAPTER V.]
Hermit-Crabs.
'Finding on the shoar
Som handsome shell, whose native lord of late
Was dispossessed by the doom of Fate,
Therein he enters, and he takes possession
Of th' empty harbour, by the free concession
Of Nature's law—who goods that owner want,
Alwaies allots to the first occupant.'—Du Bartas.