^Extraordinary AbinuUmcc of Lobsters. 291 



the coldest June. From May to October it is exceedingly 

 difficult to laud with boats on the island, and cases not un- 

 frequently occur during the continuance of the stormy season 

 resembling that which is instanced by the historiographer of 

 Lord Macartney's embassy to China, in which, during Sep- 

 tember, 1792, a ship anchored on the east side of the island, was 

 only able twice, during the lapse of eight weeks, to send a boat 

 to the island with provisions. On this station the fishery is 

 confined to the fine season (from November to April), while 

 for the rest of the year the various huts of the fishermen are 

 entirely abandoned, being only inhabited by a couple of men, 

 in whose charge are left the few but by no means valueless 

 implements and apparatus of the island. These men lead a 

 very monotonous life, though not one of privation, for the 

 crater-basin supplies the whole year round the most delicious 

 fish, and craw-fish of the finest kind. 



Our sailors used to hang a basket with bait close to the edge 

 of the crater-basin, sunk a few feet in the water, which they 

 would draw out every time full of lobsters. In a few hours 

 they frequently caught from eighty to one hundred pounds* 

 weight of these large and extremely delicate species of shell- 

 fish. An excursion which was got up one morning to the 

 South side of the island, in a fisherman's boat, was rewarded 

 in a few hours with some fifty different sorts of denizens of 

 the deep, some of which weighed twenty to twenty-five pounds 

 each. 



According to Viot*s account, snow does not fall often in 



u2 



