The flesh of all crustaceous animals, although in great request, is
rather difficult of digestion; and much of it cannot be eaten with
impunity. There are classes of persons who are as averse to use
shell-fish for food, as a Mahommedan or Mussulman are to partake
of pork. It is therefore curious to reflect how, and where, the
thousands of tons of crustacea and shell-fish taken to Billingsgate
and Hungerford markets are disposed of. Lobsters, cray-fish, prawns,
shrimps, oysters, mussels, periwinkles, and whelks, are there every
morning in great abundance, and the high retail prices they fetch, show
that this description of food must be well relished by the Londoners.
The land crabs of the West Indies are an esteemed delicacy, and the
ravenous pigs feed on them with equal avidity to the great danger of
their health.
I need not here advert to the migratory habits of the crabs, to their
uniting at certain periods in vast numbers, and moving in the most
direct course to the sea, marching in squadrons and lines, and halting
twice a-day for feeding and repose. These movements may often be seen
in Jamaica, and other West Indian islands, where millions on millions
string themselves along the coast on progresses from the hills to the
sea, and from the sea to the hills.
The reader of Bishop Heber’s _Indian Journal_ will remember his account
of the land crabs at Poonah. ‘All the grass land generally through the
Deckan swarms with a small land crab, which burrows in the ground, and
runs with considerable swiftness, even when encumbered with a bundle of
food almost as big as itself. This food is grass or the green stalks of
rice; and it is amusing to see them sitting as it were upright, to cut
their hay with their sharp pincers, then waddling off with the sheaf to
their holes as quietly as their side-long pace will carry them.’
This is not the same land crab of which we are speaking, but it is a
graphic picture of the _Gecarcina ruricola_, in its habit of feeding.
They cut up roots and leaves, and feed on the fallen fruit of trees;
but we have little more than conjecture for the cause of their
occasional deleterious qualities. Impressed with the notion that the
crabs owe their hurtful qualities to the fruit of the manchineel
tree, Sloane imagined that he had explained the fatal accidents which
have occurred to some persons after eating them, from neglect, or
inattentiveness to precaution in cleaning their interior and removing
the half digested particles of the fruit. It has been ascertained that
they feed on such dangerous vegetables of the morass as the _Anona
palustris_, a fruit exceedingly narcotic. It is well enough known that
the morass crab is always to be suspected. The land crabs, however,
collect leaves less for food than to envelop themselves in, when they
moult. After concealment for a time within their burrows, they come
forth in those thin teguments forming a red tense pellicle, similar to
wet parchment, and are more delicate in that condition, and more prized
for the table. The white crabs are the most bulky of the tribe, and are
the least esteemed, and the most mistrusted.
Land-crabs, says a Jamaica paper, of March last, are to be seen on
the highways between this, Montego Bay, and Gum Island, just like
bands of soldiers, marching to a battle-point of concentration. This
bids fair to supply the epicure, at an easy rate, with this class of
crustacea. It is one of the most remarkable, for it is composed of
animals breathing by means of branchiæ or gills, and yet essentially
terrestrial; so much so, indeed, that they would perish from asphyxia
if submerged for any length of time.
I select Browne’s account of the habits of the black or mountain crab,
because he resided many years in Jamaica, and seems to have lost no
opportunity of making personal observations; and his remarks tally with
my own experience, from three years’ residence in Jamaica.
‘These creatures are very numerous in some parts of Jamaica, as well as
in the neighbouring islands, and on the coast of the main continent;
they are generally of a dark purple colour, but this often varies, and
you frequently find them spotted, or entirely of another hue. They
live chiefly on dry land, and at a considerable distance from the sea,
which, however, they visit once a year to wash off their spawn, and
afterwards return to the woods and higher lands, where they continue
for the remaining part of the season; nor do the young ones ever fail
to follow them, as soon as they are able to crawl. The old crabs
generally regain their habitations in the mountains, which are seldom
within less than a mile, and not often above three from the shore, by
the latter end of June, and then provide themselves with convenient
burrows, in which they pass the greatest part of the day, going out
only at night to feed. In December and January they begin to be in
spawn, and are then very fat and delicate, but continue to grow richer
until the month of May, which is the season for them to wash off their
eggs. They begin to move down in February, and are very much abroad in
March and April, which seems to be the time for the impregnation of
their eggs, being then frequently found fixed together; but the males,
about this time, begin to lose their flavour and richness of their
juices. The eggs are discharged from the body through two small round
holes situated at the sides, and about the middle of the under shell;
these are only large enough to admit one at a time, and as they pass
they are entangled in the branched capillaments, with which the under
side of the apron is copiously supplied, to which they stick by the
means of their proper gluten, until the creatures reach the surf, where
they wash them all off, and then they begin to return back again to the
mountains. It is remarkable that the bag or stomach of this creature
changes its juices with the state of the body; and while poor is full
of a black, bitter, disagreeable fluid, which diminishes as it fattens,
and at length acquires a delicate, rich flavour. About the month
of July or August, the crabs fatten again and prepare for moulting,
filling up their burrows with dry grass, leaves, and abundance of
other materials: when the proper period comes, each retires to his
hole, shuts up the passage, and remains quite inactive until he gets
rid of his old shell, and is fully provided with a new one. How long
they continue in this state is uncertain, but the shell is observed to
burst, both at the back and sides, to give a passage to the body, and
it extracts its limbs from all the other parts gradually afterwards. At
this time, the fish is in the richest state, and covered only with a
tender membraneous skin, variegated with a multitude of reddish veins;
but this hardens gradually after, and becomes soon a perfect shell like
the former; it is, however, remarkable, that during this change, there
are some stony concretions always formed in the bag, which waste and
dissolve gradually, as the creature forms and perfects its new crust.
A wonderful mechanism! This crab runs very fast, and always endeavours
to get into some hole or crevice on the approach of danger; nor does it
wholly depend on its art and swiftness, for while it retreats it keeps
both claws expanded, ready to catch the offender if he should come
within its reach; and if it succeeds on these occasions, it commonly
throws off the claw, which continues to squeeze with incredible force
for near a minute after; while he, regardless of the loss, endeavours
to make his escape, and to gain a more secure or a more lonely covert,
contented to renew his limb with his coat at the ensuing change; nor
would it grudge to lose many of the others to preserve the trunk
entire, though each comes off with more labour and reluctance, as their
numbers lessen.’
There are several varieties of land crabs, such as the large white,
the mulatto, the black, and the red. The black and red crabs are most
excellent eating: when in season, the females are full of a rich
glutinous substance, called the eggs, which is perfectly delicious.
Epicurean planters, in some of the West Indian Islands, have crab pens,
(after the manner of fowl coops,) for fattening these luxuries. The
best manner of dressing them is to pick out all the flesh from the
shell, making it into a stew, with plenty of cayenne pepper, dishing
it up in the shell; in this way they are little inferior to turtle.
They are usually simply boiled, or roasted in the embers, by which they
are deprived of their luscious flavour, and become not only insipid in
taste but disgusting to look at.
In Dominica, they form an ingredient in the well-known ‘pepper-pot.’
The black crabs are also picked from their shell, stewed with Indian
kale and pods of chilhies, and eaten with a pudding made of maize flour
or rice; this dish is greatly esteemed by most of the inhabitants.
In the islands and cays of the Bahamas group, land crabs literally
swarm, and afford food for the inhabitants the greatest part of the
year: even the hogs are fed upon them. It is the grey or white kind of
crab, common to Cuba and the Bahamas. In the autumn they are very fat,
and equal in flavour to the black species of Jamaica. They are found
in myriads in all parts, and thought a great delicacy; but a stranger
tires of them in a few weeks.
The black crab is very fat and delicious; but the white and the mulatto
crabs are sometimes dangerous, from feeding upon poisonous leaves and
berries. To prevent any evil consequences, the flesh is washed with
lime-juice and water.
Land crabs were probably plentiful in Italy, in the time of Virgil, for
in his _Fourth Georgic_ he forbids the roasting of red crabs near an
apiary, the smell of them being disagreeable to the bees.
There is a species of fresh-water crab, the mason (_Cancer
cementarius_), met with in Chile, the flesh of which is very white,
and represented to be preferable to that of any other species of
fluvial or marine crab. It is about eight inches long, of a brown
colour, striped with red. They are found in abundance in almost all the
rivers and brooks, on whose shores they build themselves, with clay,
a small cylindrical tenement which rises six inches above the surface
of the ground, but admits the water, by means of a subterranean canal
extending to the bed of the river. They are easily caught, by letting
down into the water a basket, or osier-pot, with a piece of meat in it.
That well-known crustacean, or ‘shell-fish’ as it is popularly
termed,--the lobster (_Astacus gammarus_), although it is no fish at
all, is found in great plenty about most of the European and American
shores, and greatly esteemed as a very rich and nourishing aliment.
In this country lobsters are considered in season from November till
the end of April. They are not allowed to be caught on the coasts of
Scotland between the 1st of June and the 1st of September, under a
penalty of £5. Lobsters must not be offered for sale in this country
under eight inches in length. Like the crab, the lobster casts its
shell annually. It begins to breed in the spring, and continues
breeding during the greater part of the summer. Lobsters are
occasionally caught on the shores and in the neighbourhood of rocks,
which they frequent, by the hand; but they are usually trapped in
baskets, or pots made of osier-twigs, which are baited with garbage,
and thrown into the sea, the situation being marked by a buoy of cork.
Lobsters are very abundant about Scilly and the Land’s End, and near
Montrose in Scotland. In the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the value of
the lobsters caught in 1833 was £1,800, which gave employment to 216
boats, and about 500 men. They are sent principally to Leith. Those
caught near Heligoland are esteemed the most delicate. The largest
fishery for these crustaceans is on the coasts of Norway, from whence
we import more than a million a year. Upwards of half-a-million are
caught on the shores of Scotland and Ireland. Lobsters are found almost
everywhere on the North American coasts, and in the Bay of Chaleur, in
such extraordinary numbers, that they are used by thousands to manure
the land.
Mr. Perley, in his _Report on the Sea and River Fisheries of New
Brunswick_, states, ‘That at Shippagan and Caraquette, carts are
sometimes driven down to the beaches at low water, and readily filled
with lobsters left in the shallow pools by the recession of the tide.
Every potato field near the places mentioned is strewn with lobster
shells, each potato hill being furnished with two or three lobsters.
‘Within a few years,’ he adds, ‘one establishment has been set up on
Portage Island, at the mouth of the River Miramachi, and another at
the mouth of the Kouchibouguac River, for putting up lobsters, in tin
cases, hermetically sealed for exportation. In 1845, no less than
13,000 cases of lobsters and salmon were thus put up at Portage Island.
In 1847, nearly 10,000 cases of lobsters, each case containing the
choicest parts of two or three lobsters, and one-and-a-half tons of
fresh salmon in 2-lb. and 4-lb. cases, were put up at Kouchibouguac.
The preservation of lobsters in this manner need only be restricted by
the demand, for the supply is unlimited. The price paid for lobsters,
at the establishment on Portage Island, is 2_s._ per 100. They are all
taken in small hoop nets, chiefly by the Acadian French of the Neguac
villages, who, at the price stated, could with reasonable diligence,
make £1 each in the 24 hours; but as they are somewhat idle and easily
contented, they rarely exert themselves to earn more than 10_s._ per
day, which they can generally obtain by eight or ten hours’ attention
to their hoop nets.
‘In 1848, about 4,000 lbs. of lobsters were put up at Portage Island
in 1-lb. or 2-lb. tin cases. The quantity preserved was much less than
usual, owing to the prevalence of cholera in the United States, and
the consequent want of a market there. One Frenchman had, unassisted,
caught 1,200 lobsters in part of one day. About 25 men are employed at
this preserving establishment during the season.
‘Mr. Woolner has a small but very complete establishment for preserving
lobsters, at Petit Rocher, in the Bay of Chaleur. In the season
of 1849, he only put up a small quantity, 2,000 lbs., in tins. He
purchases from the settlers the white part of the lobsters, boiled and
free from shell, at 2_d._ per lb., which is salted in plain pickle, and
packed in barrels, for sale at Quebec. He shipped last year 11,000 lbs.
of salted lobsters.’
Next to timber, lobsters form one of the greatest articles of Norwegian
export. On the rocky shores of Christiansand, they are found in greater
numbers than in any other part of the world; and from Bergen, which
lies farther to the north, as many as 260,000 pairs have been exported
in one year. Mr. J. E. Saunders, of Billingsgate, into whose hands
almost the entire trade of these crustaceans has fallen, often sells
15,000 lobsters before breakfast of a morning; and in the height of the
season, the sale not unfrequently amounts to 30,000. They are sent in
great numbers from Scotland to the markets of London, Liverpool, and
Birmingham--60 or 70 large boxes of them being transmitted at a time by
train. Our fishermen, it is true, take them occasionally in pots round
the coast, but no systematic fishery is carried on for them.
A company was recently formed at Berwick to import them alive, in
welled smacks, from the coast of Norway. They are also brought into
Southampton from Brittany and Ireland in welled smacks, which carry
from 7,000 to 8,000 each.
‘Lobster-carrying is subject to the following contingencies:--Thunder
kills them when in the well; also proximity to the discharge of heavy
ordnance. Mr. Scovell lost several thousand from the latter cause, one
of his smacks having anchored at night too near the saluting-battery at
Plymouth. Calms also destroy the lobsters in the well, but onward or
pitching motion in a seaway does not affect them. They keep alive one
month in the well without food.’[35]
An artificial pond, or saltern, has been formed at Hamble, in the
Southampton water, for keeping lobsters alive in. It is about 50
yards square, by 10 to 12 feet deep, with shelving sides of brick or
stone and cement, and a concrete bottom, having a lock or weir at the
entrance, for the admission and exit of salt water at the bottom (the
Hamble being a fresh-water stream). This pond cost about £13,000. The
lobsters are fed on fish, and fatten. Sometimes there are as many as
70,000 lobsters in this pond. All weak lobsters are kept in baskets and
sold first. Even here, however, their cannibal-like propensities are
not extinguished; for the powerful make war upon, and incorporate into
their own natures, the weak. There are feeders and keepers employed
at the saltern, who, with long poles, hooked at the end, drag out the
fish as they are wanted for the market from their marine menagerie. The
instant the pole touches a fish, the latter grasps it savagely with its
claws, and does not loose its hold until it is on _terra firma_. When
large quantities are required, the pond is drained. These shell-fish
are enormous creatures, the body with the claws being as long as a
man’s arm. As the lobsters and cray-fish climb nimbly up the sides of
the watery caravan, they look like a collection of purple-coloured
monkeys or stunted baboons; and there is something frightful in the
appearance and noiselessness of these chatterless simiæ, climbing about
their liquid den, and approaching the surface to look at the spectator.
They are sent to the metropolis in hampers, packed in fern in winter
and in ice in summer.
The Americans in the large cities and inland towns seem to be as
fond of lobster salads and curries as we Britishers are; and it is
estimated, that there are annually consumed in and about Boston,
700,000 lobsters, the prime cost of which is £16 per 1,000. This makes
the snug little sum of £11,200. 500,000 of the lobsters come from the
State of Maine, and the remaining 200,000 are taken from Massachusetts
Bay. About 700 men are engaged in catching the lobsters, and some 800
tons of shipping in carrying them to Boston, exclusive of what are
conveyed by steamboat and railroad.
Here is a poetical narrative, of American origin, bearing upon this
crustacean:--