Shrimp

“ SHRIMP SAUCE.— Shrimps are the smallest shell-fish of the lobster species. Put them into salted boiling water. They are done when they have turned entirely red. When cold, pull off the heads, and peel off the shells from the bodies; or squeeze out the meat with your fingers. Have ready some nice drawn butter, and thicken it with the shrimps, either chopped or whole. Season the sauce with mace or nutmeg powdered, and give it one boil up. Shrimp sauce is eaten with salmon and other fine fish. ”

“ It is sometimes observed in aquariums that a shrimp, which has seen the prey devoured from a distance, will throw itself upon the ravisher, and audaciously wrest the prey from him and devour it before his eyes, to his great disappointment. Even when the savoury morsel has been swallowed, the shrimp, by great exertions, succeeds in extracting it from the stomach. Seating itself upon the extended disk of the anemone, with its small feet it prevents the approach of the tentacles, at the same time that it inserts its claws into the digestive cavity and seizes the food. ”

“ Shrimp, shrimp, n. a genus of edible crustaceans, of the order Decapoda, allied to lobsters, crayfish, and prawns: a little wizened or dwarfish person.—v.i. to catch shrimps.—ns. Shrimp′er, one who catches shrimps; Shrimp′ing, the act of catching shrimps; Shrimp′-net, a small-meshed net, on a hoop and pole, for catching shrimps. [Parallel to shrink; cf. Scotch scrimpit, pinched.] ”

“ The pipe-fish, a peculiarly shaped specimen, comparatively rare on our Atlantic coast, is worthy a place in your collection; and the shrimp, the acrobat of the aquarium, whose funny little backward movements, when the poor little fellow is frightened, create so much laughter among the little folks, must not be forgotten. Young scallops are very pretty, and when left undisturbed open their shells a trifle, disclosing a beautiful fringe of tiny blue tentacles which wave to and fro with every motion of the water. ”

“ The limy shell first suggests a relationship with the clam, but body structure shows it to be a closer relative of the crab.
Shrimps (Crago septemspinosus, the Sand Shrimp, and Palaemonetes vulgaris, the Prawn) Hard, transparent shell Long antennae Paddle-like tail
These tiny tide-pool creatures look for all the world like the larger edible shrimp served in local restaurants. Actually, these miniature two-inch-long shrimps are edible also, and quite enjoyable if you have the time and patience to collect enough for a meal. ”

“ Among them are the shrimp and prawn, thin-shelled, active crustaceans common along our eastern coast. In spite of the fact that they form a large part of the food supply of many marine animals, especially fish, they do not appear to be decreasing in numbers. They are also used as food by man, the shrimp fisheries in this country aggregating over $1,000,000 yearly. ”

“ They are esteemed for eating even more highly than the shrimp.
Shrimps.—Small crustaceans allied to the lobster, most of them inhabitants of the sea. In many countries they form an important part of the diet, but with us they are little used with the exception of one or two southern species which are used as a basis for shrimp salad. Shrimps are very abundant off our coast and could be made an important fishery.
SCORPIONS AND SPIDERS In this class of insects the head and thorax are joined together in one mass, on which they have two pairs of jaws, and four pairs of legs. ”

“ The fresh water shrimp is a curious little creature, sometimes he paddles his three pairs of hind legs and sometimes he jerks his body in a ludicrous manner, in either case he manages to propel himself rapidly through the water. ”

“ The common shrimp is found abundantly on the coasts of the British Islands, in shallow water wherever the bottom is sandy. It is 2 or 3 in. long, slightly flattened and with the rostrum or beak, in front of the carapace, very short. It is of a translucent greyish colour, speckled with brown and closely resembles the sand in which it lives. On many parts of the coast the shrimp fishery is of considerable importance. ”

“ The day’s work on shrimp is much shorter than on oysters as the fingers of the worker give out in spite of the fact that they are compelled to harden them in an alum solution at the end of the day. Moreover, the shrimp are packed in ice, and a few hours handling of these icy things is dangerous for any child. Then, too, the mornings, and many of the days, are cold, foggy and damp.
The workers are thinly clad, but, like the fabled ostrich, cover their heads and imagine they are warm. If a child is sick, it gets a vacation, and wanders around to kill time. ”

“ They are fringed with hairs. When the Prawn or Shrimp is not in a hurry, he swims slowly but surely with the little paddles, or "swimmerets." If any danger threatens, he uses his tail, in this way:--It is made of five fringed plates, which, as you can see, spread out or close up, like a fan. As he doubles up his body, the plates spread themselves out. They strike the water with great force, and so send the Prawn or Shrimp quickly backwards. As the body becomes straight again, the fan closes, ready for another stroke. ”

“ Watch a man swallow an oyster, and how much more do you know of him after the operation than you knew before? But put him in a Marchioness's drawing-room and set a shrimp before him, and the manner in which he tackles the task will reveal the sort of stuff he is made of.
The shrimp test is one before which physically strong men have broken down, while the seemingly weak have displayed amazing fortitude. ”

“ The abundance of Crustacea may be imagined when some eighty Shrimp-boats, carrying a man and boy or two men each, working dredges, and in some cases small trawls with a beam of from twelve to fourteen feet, find their owners remunerative employment from March to end of September. Their catches are principally the Æsop's Prawn, Pandalus annulicornis (known locally as the "Pink Shrimp") , and the Sand Shrimp, Crangon vulgaris (known as the "Brown Shrimp") . Two bushels of Shrimps are a no uncommon "take" in a single tide. "Browns" come inshore in the spring, and are then chiefly taken ”

“ With crab the hook must be larger. I prefer always to have the point of the hook covered, and recommend that the shrimp should be bunched on till they hide the hook entirely, and form a round, attractive bait, composed of so many shrimp as no bass ever before saw together. ”

“ Your ingenious and talented correspondent, Vyvyan, in writing on the shrimp, (the Mirror, p. 361, vol. xviii.) remarks that "The sea roamer may often have observed numbers of little air-holes in the sand, which expand as the sun advances. If he stirs it with his foot, he will cause a brood of young shrimps, who will instantly hop and jump about the beach in the most lively manner," &c.: these "jumpers" as they are facetiously called, are not shrimps, but sea-fleas, and they possess the elasticity for which their namesakes are so remarkable. They are as different as possible from young shrimps ”

“ Another variety of shrimp resembles the common wood-louse found under pieces of bark, but is most beautifully iridescent, glowing like an opal at the bottom of the pool. The curious little sea-spiders keep me guessing for a long time where their internal organs can be, as they 142 consist of legs with merely enough body to connect these firmly together. The fact that the thread-like stomach and other organs send a branch into each of the eight legs explains the mystery and shows how far economy of space may go. ”

“ The fishing is usually best on the flood tide, and almost any kind of bait will answer; but shrimp is best, though sandworms, very small minnows, or even earthworms are useful. Given the proper time and place, and with tackle and bait in readiness, it only remains to cast the baited hook, retrieve the fish, and so on ad infinitum. ”

“ You can easily tell a prawn from a shrimp, for the beak which projects in front of its head is covered with sharp points, which are almost exactly like the teeth of a saw. It feeds upon the bodies of the various small creatures which die by millions every day. In this way it helps to keep the water of the sea pure. It feeds in a curious way, tearing off tiny scraps of flesh with the little pincers at the tips of the second pair of legs, and poking them into its mouth one after another. ”

“ The young women and girls jibe at us when we go shrimp fishing, on terms of perfect equality—there are no distinctions in the sea—because we have not the sleight of hand necessary to jerk the shining, slippery little fish into the basket from the net. ”

“ To demonstrate this fact, put a live lobster, or even a shrimp, in a still rock pool, and threaten it from before, when it will rapidly retreat backwards by a series of powerful jerks, produced by suddenly doubling its abdomen forwards beneath its body. ”

“ There they are, Curlews and Dunlins and Sandpipers, Plovers and Knots, Oystercatchers feeding on mussels and limpets, and Turnstones tilting up the lumps of mud149 to find food beneath. One and all they are running hither and thither, to seize here a shrimp or sandhopper or a tiny fish, there a worm or a sea-slug; making the most of their time before the sea comes up and covers their feeding ground. ”

“ With quick movements like Shrimps they dart away as you approach. They have a way of hiding under weeds and rocks, being very clever at "hide-and-seek," and knowing all the dodges. But, by using a net, you will soon capture a few of them. Then you can put them in a small pool and examine them; or even keep them in an aquarium, giving them clean sea-water, seaweed, and the small shrimps on which they feed.
In our lesson on fish-nurseries we saw how the Sea-stickleback, Sand Goby and Pipe-fish cared for their eggs or young ones. These three fish are often to be found by the shore. ”

“ What the salmon mistakes it for is not easy to say, for there is nothing like it in nature. Probably a semi-transparent shrimp or prawn reflecting the gorgeous tints of the sur rounding sea vegetation may be the nearest approach to it. ”

“ Out of the water their fur is black and soft, but under it a thousand air-bubbles clothe them round till they flash like silver fishes in the sun. In and out of the weeds they swim, picking off the fresh-water shrimps from under the leaves. ”

“ Shrimp Sauce is also very good as follows: Pound half a pint of shrimps, skins and all, in a mortar, and boil them ten minutes in half a pint of water; pass the liquor through a hair sieve into a stewpan, and add a piece of butter the size of two walnuts, with which you have mixed a good teaspoonful of flour, stir it round over the fire until upon the point of boiling; if too thick, add a little more water; season with a little cayenne, and a teaspoonful of essence of anchovies; serve very hot ”

“ We need hardly mention, what is so well known to every reader, that prawns and shrimps are amongst the most esteemed delicacies at our table, and as articles of food occupy no mean place on the fish-stall. At Billingsgate alone, it is hardly credible the immense quantities which arrive and are daily consumed in the Metropolis by all classes of the community. The shrimp, which although the smaller crustacean, is perhaps the finest flavoured of the two, is sold in much larger quantities than its more aristocratic congener, the prawn. ”

“ The shrimps are thrown into boiling salt water, rapidly stirred for a few seconds, and spread out on the deck to cool. From three to four hauls are made per day, a good day’s fishing consisting of from 30 to 40 quarts of shrimps. Large numbers of shrimps are potted.
The other important group of shellfish is the mollusca. Molluscs, i.e. “soft creatures,” are essentially soft, mobile animals, protected by shells. They are classed as bi-valves, for example oyster and mussel, and uni-valves, for example limpet and whelk. ”

“ We will again place twelve more shrimps in the aquarium. This time they will live, and we will have established a true aquarium—an aquarium based on the self-sustaining principles of nature, wherein it will not be necessary to change the water.
SHRIMP.
Fish as well as human beings breathe air. Air is contained in all water. ”

“ We have a small shrimp in these countries, which is taken in the Thames and in the sea, the whole of whose body is transparent; this creature, placed in a little water, has frequently afforded myself and particular friends an opportunity of observing the motions of the heart with the greatest distinctness, the external parts of the body presenting no obstacle to our view, but the heart being perceived as though it had been seen through a window. ”

“ They will interest us while living in the aquarium, and when dead we can put them into pickle, and break them up at our leisure.
The broad shell of the Crab—the crab-cart of children—corresponds to the carapace of the Lobster, the Prawn, and the Shrimp, and bears the same number of appendages—fourteen pairs. To make out the pleon or swimming part, it is only necessary to lay the crab on its back, and, with a needle, or small knife, turn back the flap—or ‘apron,’ as fishermen call it—which lies in a groove on the under surface. ”

“ Fresh herring, with salt and wine, Shrimps well pickled, Flounders, Gudgeons, Minews, and Muskles, Eels, and Lampreys, Sprats is good in few, musculade in worts, oysters in few, oysters in gravy, minews in porpus, salmon in jelly white and red, cream of almonds, dates in comfits, pears and quinces in sirrup, with parsley roots, mortus of hound fish raise standing. ”

“ He is about half an inch long, brown in colour and with a curved body not unlike a shrimp. If we examine him under the microscope we notice that his front legs are bent forwards, whilst his hind legs are bent backwards. The male water flea is much larger than the female, a fact which probably accounts for the fact that these little animals often carry their wives about with them by seizing them with their fore legs.
The water louse we may also encounter, he is not nearly so interesting as the fresh water shrimp. ”