294 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



his own expense. He therefore expended a sum of 600, 

 with which he procured eight boats, completely equipped, 

 and a small smack of sixteen tons. The crews, consisting 

 of thirty men, he furnished with all the necessary fishing 

 materials, paying the men weekly wages ranging from nine 

 to thirteen shillings, part of the sum being in meal. The 

 result of this experiment was, that these eight boats sent 

 to the London market in a few months as many lobsters as 

 reimbursed the original cost of the fishing plant. The men 

 and their families were thus rescued from a state of semi- 

 starvation, and are now living in comfort, with plenty sur- 

 rounding their dwellings ; and have, besides, the satisfaction 

 of knowing that their present independent condition has 

 been achieved principally by means of their own well-sus- 

 tained industry. 



A very large share of our lobsters is derived from Nor- 

 way, as many as 30,000 sometimes arriving from the fjords 

 in a single day. The Norway lobsters are much esteemed, 

 and we pay the Norwegians something like 20,000 a year 

 for this one article of commerce. They are brought over 

 in welled steam-vessels, and are kept in the wooden reser- 

 voirs already alluded to, some of which may be seen at Hole 

 Haven, on the Essex side of the Thames. Once upon a 

 time, some forty years ago, one of these wooden lobster- 

 stores was run into by a Russian frigate, whereby some 

 20,000 lobsters were set adrift to sprawl in the muddy waters 

 of the Thames. In order that the great mass of animals 

 confined in these places may be kept upon their best beha- 

 vior, a species of cruelty has to be perpetrated to prevent 

 their tearing each other to pieces : the great claw is, there- 

 fore, rendered paralytic by means of a wooden peg being 

 driven into a lower joint. 



I have no intention of describing the whole members of 

 the Crustacea; they are much too numerous to admit of 



