Arizona silver belt., 1895-02-09
CRAB CATCHING.
A Popular Fall Sport on the Att
 lantic Coast.
Points for the Uninitiatcd in tho Art of ''Nabbingr the Simblo Crustaoesn--An Inexpensive Pastime for Oid
 and Young.

bAA AAA sftN 'N N tAA thA NAaN A''aN.Af'' bays and inlets of Long Island and the Connecticut shore there nowadays is great fun atloat says the New York World. Every man, woman and child that can pole square-ended scow or handle scoop-net is proving along the sedgy creek banks or drifting up the shoal covcs netting crabs. This Is the heart of the crab season.
 The biggest and fattest of the blue claws are now hunting tideway and creek, coming and going with every tide, hungry and eager as they sail in on the flood and coy and well fed as they laaily depart on the ebb. Every one who wants to go grabbing and can't is profoundly to be pitied, and the few who can and don't want to either do not realize what 0 satisfying, all-absorbing pastime it is or else they have lost interest in life.
 IL is an inexpensive pastime and the fishing grounds are near at hand. For che matter of that man may take his wife and children along. He has only to look up the time of tide and train schedules, buy a net for a quarter d dozen baits of tough, raw meat and a ball of twine for line, shoulder his basket and start. He must try to time his departure so as to reach the creek on the rising tide, for Mir. Crah comes in very lame and hungry from the sea aud bites eagerly then what few hours later he win turn mp his well-fed nose at and ignore.
 If you cannot, or do not care to, hire a boat, the accommodating crab will humor you and let you capture him from tine muddy bank, Bank fishing is done by driving little stakes in the edge of the shore at about a rods dis tance apart, and to each of these tying a line about twelve feet long on which you have tied a bit of meat. If the current bothers you you should have some small sinliers along, for if the meat floats on top few crabs will no- tice it.
 Ten or dozen lines are all one party eau manage generally for the crabs feed like newsboys at Christmas dinner. The man who handles the net will have his hands full running from one line to another, as some one yells: Here, don't wait al day; there are two old lappers hcrer' or; Come quick Come quick! This one will let gor' One of the beauties of the sport Is that the children can all help. Even
 he little shaver of eight or nine can be shown how to draw in his crab gently and slowly and then how to tenderly lift him till the net has him fast.
 Thewomen all like II, too; like to shout over sliDpinr in the mud. like to scream when crab gets out of the basket or net and runs sideways at their feet; and like, above all to have found an outdoor sport in which they can join their husbands and boys And it is not like wooing the trout or ticl;le black bass, when one may toll day after day with little or no profit, just because he has not on a darker or brighter fly
 If one is not blest with wife and lit tie one and is going alone, he may try Q still more exciting form of the sport That is what is technically known as 'nabbing" "Nahbiug' consists in floating up with the tide over shall lows and scooping up the crabs as they feed or run without the use of bait Now, from the number of his pedal extremities, the quick ness of his queer bulging eyes and his ability to start in any direction without turning the crab could not be called by his bitterest enemies q slug irish or clumsy fish When he has a particular reason for going up creek toward certain bed of eel grass or sea lctticc and gives his personal attention to the subject it takes a gentleman of considerable agility to intercept his flight No dreamy, abscnt-minded or profoundly thoughtful person should try to nab The thread of their reasoning is apt Co be abruptly severed by plunge into the black ooze of the creek.
 The nabber' stands at one end, or. if there arc two 'nabbers, one at each end and they simply let the boat drift with the tide Along the shore is a favorite haunt of crabs rather than in the middle of the bay or creek, perhaps because floating bits of food are apt to lodge in the sedge.
 The net whose thirteen or fifteen- inch frame seemed so large when you bought it now seems as small as an arrow point when you drive it at a vanishing crab and miss him clean. Too vicious thrust often sticks the net deep in the mud bottom, and if you are not lively in rescuing it the boat passing over will smash the handle or the sudden wrench will hurl you into the water. Then once you are fouled in such way the most tempt ing sort of opportunities always pre- sent themselves.
 Big luscious crabs come slowly, Ian guidly by, blinking in peaceful security as if they realized your predicament, and guardian crabs take advantage of that particular moment to scurry past with their soft-shelled wards. You are wiser and hotter, and usually tired after you have succeeded atlast in pry- ing that net loose.
 At high tide one may only skirt the shore, catching what stray crabs he may find cHnging to the sedge and reeds, for out in the bay the depth is too great When the tide turns you may go down with it, catching just as many or more than you took going up, for the midday meal has made his crab ship more slow and lazy in his move mcnt. Expert 'nabbers" can turn with one crab captured i'll the net, plunge for q second and third and even fourth, and at last fling the whole quartettc snapping and kicking into the bottom of the boat.
 NAMING THE CITIES.