SALT-WATER FISHERIES OF NORWAY. 077 



I have in the above-mentioned work {Vid. Selslcabets Forhandlinger for 

 1874 — Transactions of the Academy of Sciences) described the young 

 lobster during tbisaud the threesucceediug stages of its development, and 

 accompanied the description with plates. Each of these stages is char- 

 acterized by ajireceding change of skin ; and each one of these changes 

 makes the young lobster which in the beginning looks very unlike its 

 parents, resemble them more closely. At the fifth change the metamor- 

 phosis is complete, and therewith ends its pelagian life. The young 

 lobster has then entirely lost its swimming apparatus attached to the 

 fore part of its body, and in its place the well-known fringes have grown 

 at the lower side of the back part of the body. These fringes are the 

 only swimming apparatus which the grown lobster possesses; in the 

 female lobster, they likewise serve to keep the roe in position. The lobster 

 now leaves the surface and goes to the bottom, there to lead the same 

 life as its parents. I am not positively certain how long a time is taken 

 ui) by the whole metamorphosis, but I am inclined to think that it takes 

 at least a couple of months. 



Even after the lobster has reached its final development, it continues 

 to change its skin regularly at any rate once a year, and continues to 

 do so as long as it grows. Only when it has stopped growing, this 

 change of skin does not occur so often. We shall therefore always find 

 that very large lobsters are more or less thickly covered with scales 

 which is not so frequent in smaller specimens. The process of chang- 

 ing skin is very tedious and dangerous for the lobster, which may be 

 imagined when it is known that not only the outer shell is changed, 

 but even some of the inner parts, e. g. the stomach-bag. The process occu- 

 X^ies a considerable time, and while it is going on the lobster is sick and 

 utterly unable to fly from its enemies or to defend itself against them. 

 It is therefore but natural that under such circumstances it very easily 

 dies in the traps. Even after the change of skin is over the lobster 

 remains weak for some time. It therefore hides among the stones at 

 the bottom of the sea and remains there until the new shell has become 

 sufficiently hard and its strength has returned. 



The earliest changing of shell which I observed during my journey 

 was in the first days of July near Tananger. I here had an opportunity 

 to observe a lobster engaged in this process. It had just been taken out 

 of a lobster-box and could be handled without offering the slightest 

 resistance. The shell on its back was burst in the middle, and the tail 

 and the feet were nearly all out of the old shell, while the largest claw 

 only stuck out half its lengih. This latter portion of the change of 

 shell is evidently very dangerous, and although I observed it for quite 

 a while, I could see little or no progress. It is certainly a painful and 

 dangerous process, and probably many a lobster loses its life through 

 it. Immediately after the changing of the shell the lobster is lean and 

 miserable and only reaches its former size after a considerable time has 

 elapsed. According to my observations, the change of shell takes place 



