NORWEGIAN LOBSTER-FISHERY AND ITS HISTORY. 227 



but lives tbere for some time, and later frequently returns to it. It is 

 particularly distinguished by a less complete development of its feelers 

 and tail-feet, and by tbe feet being exceedingly small but furnished with 

 long brush-like branches, with which it swims vigorously on the surface 

 of the water. After having spent some time in this state, it changes its 

 skin several times and assumes the shape of its mother, when it goes 

 to the bottom. Its life from this moment till it reaches a size of 5 to 6 

 inches is entirely unknown ; for no young lobsters have been caught, 

 either by fishermen or scientists,* the smallest having been found in 

 the stomach of the torsk, so that it is probable that they spend this 

 portion of their life at a greater depth and live in a different manner 

 and on other food than at a later period. There can, therefore, not be 

 any artificial hatching of lobsters in the sense of artificial fish-hatching, 

 but all that can be done is to keep the lobster imprisoned during the 

 development of the eggs, and thus protect it from the dangers which 

 threaten it and its young. It is impossible to do anything for the tender 

 young, as they die very soon when confined. I see, however, that sev- 

 eral persons in France, and Mr. von Eris, in the lagoons of Triest, near 

 Grado, have hatched several millions of young lobsters by keeping 

 lobsters with ripe roe at the bottom of the sea in perforated boxes. 



After the lobster has emitted its roe, and the young have left the 

 mother, she begins to shed. She, therefore, goes to safe places, and 

 does not seem to care much for food, while the old skin is being loos- 

 ened ; the shell finally opens in the back, and the animal goes into the 

 water naked. It then looks as if it was covered with velvet, on ac- 

 count of the considerable formation of cells which is going on all over 

 its surface. These cells afterward grow hard through small particles 

 of lime and form the new shell. This shedding of the shell goes on 

 from the middle of July till September, but not at the same time 

 all along the coast, being earlier in the southern and later in the north- 

 ern part. The lobster thus gets sick, as it is called, toward the end of 

 June near Sogudal, and the export must then cease, as the mortality 

 among them becomes too great, while near Karmo it is still in a healthy 

 condition till July 15. Farther north, the shedding of the shell begins 

 still later, and lobster may be caught all through July. 



The greatest enemy of the lobster, and who sensibly diminishes its 

 numbers, is man. When swimming near the surface during its youth, 

 with a number of other small crustaceans, it becomes a welcome prey to 

 the herring and the mackerel. As the grown lobster keeps at no great 

 depth, and where large fish of prey are not commonly found, it is not 

 much exposed to them, but occasionally, when lying near the surface, it 

 is taken by large birds of prey. An interesting scene, may be witnessed 

 near Bukkeuo, north of Stavanger, where an Englishman haseonstruct- 



* The development of the lobster has. since the original publication of this memoir, 

 been studied by Mr. S. I. Smith, of Yale College, and Prof. Japetus Steenstrup, of Co- 

 penhagen. — Ed. 



