Crustacea. 99 



utilized by the curers, who say that the trouble of picking 

 out the flesh from the claws is too great, and that lobsters 

 are too cheap to make it worth while to go to the expense 

 of this slight additional labour. 



Lobster Fishery in Norway, etc. There are many other 

 countries where the business of preserving lobsters in tins 

 might be profitably carried on --Norway for example. 

 From the port of Stromstad, in Sweden, about 50,000 are 

 also sent annually to England. 



The Norway lobster is the Nephrops Norvegicus. This 

 crustacean is caught in the fiords from the southern ex- 

 tremity up to the Lofoden Islands ; but it has been 

 noticed for some years that there is a tendency in the 

 lobster to keep more towards the north, where they are 

 found of larger size. They are often taken by means of a 

 common cask, the bottom of which is replaced by boughs, 

 and a hole is left for the lobster to enter, attracted by the 

 bait of the fresh herring suspended, but it cannot get out 

 again. Osier pots are also used, but of a more oblong 

 shape than those employed with us. The trade is pretty 

 much centralized at Christiansund. The lobsters are there 

 placed in large reservoirs made in the centre of the fiord, 

 where they are kept alive until despatched to Belgium and 

 England. A part are sent off in wooden boxes, and others 

 in quick-sailing vessels, with holds having reservoirs capable 

 of holding 10,000 to 12,000 lobsters, the sea water passing 

 freely through holes pierced in the ship's side. 



The commerce in lobsters in Belgium is not in a very 

 good state. In 1871 several cargoes were imported from 

 Brittany ; but these lobsters are larger than those of 

 Norway, and the flesh is not so good, and yet they sell at a 

 somewhat higher price. The whole of the fishery in Nor- 

 way is monopolized by English speculators, so that it is 



