190 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



runs, such as many of the larger species of Palinurus. Among the latter we 

 find such instances as that of Palinurus Lalandii in whose deeply corrugated 

 shell we observe the calcerous tubes of generations of tube dwelling worms. 

 This is indicative of the fact that even in the more aged of these smaller 

 mac?-Mranstheintervalbetween the molting periods must be extremely long. 

 Similar evidences are to be found in the examination of such forms as Locor- 

 rhynchus crispatus of the Pacific coast, whose shell forms the dwelling place 

 of a host of marine animals. 



It is needless to say that among the lobster fishermen themselves 

 there are widely varying views on the subject of the age of lobsters. 

 While some will maintain that a lobster attains a marketable size in 

 two years, as many others will affirm, with equal sincerity, that at least 

 a dozen years are necessary. The old records of the size of large 

 lobsters are also exceedingly unreliable. As is the case wdth many 

 marine forms, the few- correct reports have become so modified by 

 hearsay and generous repetition, and the few reliable observations 

 have become so interw'oven with early and uncertain tradition of 

 monster lobsters, that our exact knowledge of " giant " lobsters is 

 necessarily limited. We know that the European species is smaller 

 than the American; yet according to Boeck ('69), Pontoppidans, the 

 old Norwegian naturalist, records* a hii^e specimen from the Bay 

 of Evien which was so large and fierce that nobody dared to attack it; 

 and that betwfeen the claws it measured at least a fathom. Herrick 

 repeats the tale of Olaus Magnusf regarding the lobsters that lived 

 between the Orkneys and the Hebrides, so large that they could 

 easily catch and squeeze in their claws strong swimmers. Such re- 

 ports as these can be attributed only to superstitious belief which at 

 all times has played havoc with reliable reports regarding the size 

 and habits of many marine animals. 



A lobster as large as the individual represented in Plate XXXIV 

 can not be less than 14 years old and is, in all probability, more. The 

 profusion of marine fauna and flora alwa3^s found attached to the 

 shells of aged lobsters bears testimony to a life of inactivity and is 



*"Norges Naturlige Historic," Kopenhagen, 1753. 

 tHistoria de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Rome, 1555. 



