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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Thanks for the story....and yes, I think I agree with you.  I also
believe they are in the water underground, eating the organic matter
that filters through from the surface.  I also bet there are small chub
or other critters down there.  It makes sense that with no large fish to
predate the crawdads (no bass, for example) they would grow very large.
 The one I saw was about 3 inches long, but I do see the giant ones like
you describe down on Rock Creek.

B

sjc wrote:
> EarthNSky wrote:
> > ...... My creek runs into it, but at the time I found the crawdad,
> > even Rock Creek had been dry for a year...so where the heck did
> > that little fellow come from if not an underground stream?
> Good question.  When we lived in SW VA, we were above a local creek 
> about 1000 feet or so, and below that, another thousand feet or so to
>  the New River.  There were many springs in the area, one spring
> about a quarter mile above the house where we had a springbox and
> line that ran to the springhouse attached to the house, so the
> outflow from that line ran through the house and excited below it.
> Direct overflow from the springbox ran down the hill and came out
> beside the house but that gully was dry most of the time, as there
> were several splits above it.
>
> But every couple of years there would be a storm and there'd be a
> flash flow (fast, scary, 4-foot wall of water that could well have
> washed an unwary person right to the New), and it never failed but
> that when that happened the boys would bring in a half-dozen or so
> giant crawdads (well, giant to us, 6-8" long) which they got crawling
> up the banks of the suddenly-filled gully, away from the water.  When
> the water was down, they'd look and look for more, and we not only
> found no big ones, we couldn't find any at all.  Never saw one except
> for when it was flooding.  Never saw one of any size in the
> springhouse.   We finally concluded they were somewhere underground
> in between floods and had gotten washed out in the sudden flow of
> water.  Wade was about 4 or so, and his question, when we finally
> figured it all out "You mean we're drinking crawdad pee in our
> water?".
>
> Interesting, though, to contemplate how much/many live things there
> are where we don't see them at all.
>
> SJ, snug in her little house while it snows outside, and snows, and 

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"The world is my country, all mankind are my
 brethren, and to do good is my religion."
 Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809)