232 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Billingsgate market, and are thence distributed from March to August. 

 Not all are consumed iu England, but a portion are again sent away, 

 especially to France. 



I have mentioned that the coast is divided into certain districts, and 

 that in these there are certain stations for the retail and wholesale 

 dealers, from which the lobsters are shipped, and where the government 

 custom-house officers are stationed, as great facilities are afforded to this 

 trade in the way of customs, &c, of which I shall speak more under 

 the history of the fisheries. Of these districts, the first, the most east- 

 erly one, extends from Faerder to Mardo, but from this district none 

 are at present exported to England. The same is partly the case in 

 the second district, which extends from Mardo to Cape Lindesnaes, 

 although some are placed dry in boxes and sent by steamer to Loudon 

 and Hamburg. In this manner, lobsters are also shipped from the next 

 district, which extends from Cape Lindesnaes to Suaekken, the chief 

 place from which they are exported in this district being Kirkehavn. 

 The lobsters are placed iu the boxes in several layers, the tail beiug 

 bent under the stomach. The boxes are then closed, and the lobsters 

 keep alive for a considerable time. Formerly, they were from these dis- 

 tricts also exported in barrels ; but this was discontinued twenty 

 years ago. The next district extends from Stavanger, near the river 

 Sire to Vig. 



[A following half-page defines the exact location of the different dis- 

 tricts. — Transl.] 



Nearly all the lobsters which are shipped from Norway are sent alive. 

 Pontoppidau relates that in his time — the middle of the last century — 

 some were salted just before being shipped, but this custom seems to 

 have been subsecpiently abandoned, as so many lobsters died during 

 the voyage. In this century, Mr. Jacob Morch, aChristiania merchant, 

 tried the plan of putting them up in hermetically-closed receptacles ; 

 but as all those which had been put up by him in this manner did not 

 get the red color of the fresh boiled lobsters, and therefore were not 

 liked so well, he took out a patent in 1840 for putting them up in such 

 a manner as to keep their beautiful red color. He dipped them in boil- 

 ing water containing salt till they got this color, and then made an 

 incision iu the soft part under the tail, thus letting the water which 

 injured them flow off, and then placed them in hermetically-sealed ves- 

 sels. Very few lobsters put up in this manner, *however, seem to have 

 been exported, and nothing more has been heard about it. 



THE LOBSTER-TRADE AND THE HISTORY OF ITS LEGISLATION. 



Although the lobster had been known to our ancestors from time 

 immemorial, it was, as has been said above, but little used as an article 

 of food, and foreigners have taught us to like its flavor. In Holland, the 

 lobster seems to have been highly prized, even in olden times ; and when 

 their lobster-fisheries were no longer able to supply the demand, the 



