Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/249

198 us imitate the philosophy of the negro mentioned by Captain Crow. On the Guinea Coast people are buried beneath their own huts, and the Land-crabs are seen crawling in and out of holes in the floor with revolting familiarity: notwithstanding which they are caught and eaten with avidity. A negro, with whom the worthy Captain remonstrated on the subject, seemed to think this but a reasonable and just retaliation, a sort of payment in kind; replying with a grin and chuckle of triumph:—Crab eat black man; black man eat he!"

An "odd fish" rejoicing under the elegant cognomen of Pogge among the vulgar, but known to the scientific votaries of sesquipedalianism by the title of Aspidophorus cataphractus, is occasionally found lurking about the quays of Weymouth. Men and boys who collect prawns and shrimps (the latter term used in its popular, not its zoological sense) go round in boats along the sides of the sea-walls, as well those outside of the harbour forming the esplanade as the commercial quays. These at low-water-line are clothed with a ragged olive fringe of Fuci, chiefly F. serratus, which hang down in an almost uninterrupted line of dense tufts, affording shelter to many small animals. The fisherman is provided with a lamm, a