A Breath of Sea Air 



for the live youngsters, when the maximum of damage can be 

 done by a few flicks of a knife. 



And this was just such a period. They brushed the larger of 

 the two ripe females and set off back within punting distance of 

 the ragged coast toward the little jetty that Frank had erected on 

 the shore of his croft. Jan jumped ashore and tied up the boat 

 while Frank, in his sullen dissatisfaction unloaded the morning's 

 take into the three wooden containers that were tethered, float- 

 ing, to his jetty. They were quite large, one of them almost six 

 feet square and over two deep, while the other two were somewhat 

 smaller. Through the gaps between their boards the Atlantic 

 water whispered softly over the living animals that had to be sold 

 alive. Here Frank would keep his catches, sometimes for as long 

 as three weeks, feeding them when necessary on herring, bits of 

 cod or whole whiting, until he had enough living lobster meat 

 for it to be worth his while to make the journey to Kirkwall 

 where he found his market. That was why these wooden cages 

 were so large. He could never tell how long a lobster would be 

 in residence nor how many lobsters would have to be imprisoned 

 together. And the lobster was a cannibal. Even when their great 

 claws were tied they could sometime kill one another if the 

 pressure of population was sufficient to prevent them from each 

 seeking a solitary and shady underwater territory, large enough 

 to allow each of them to breathe in peace, with a quiet swishing 

 of the third maxillipedes, and to perambulate occasionally, though 

 very slowly, like proprietors over their home farm. 



Whenever Frank had about twenty decent sized beasts he would 

 ask Jan to pack them and Jan would take out the boxes that were 

 kept in the byre, put a layer of wet wood shavings on the floor of 

 each of them and then remove the lobsters from their floating 

 crates and pack them close together in these carrying cases. Each 

 box was about nine inches high, four feet long and two and a half 

 wide. When the lobsters were properly packed two cases were, 

 therefore, usually all that was needed to take Frank's whole cargo. 

 Once the lobsters had been put in the boxes more wood shavings, 



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