CHAPTER XX XIIT- 
LOBSTERS, CRAW-FISH, AND SHRIMPS. 
THE crustaceans to whose description this chapter is assigned 
are a source of great income to the maritime populations. The 
lobsters and the craw-fish are considered to occupy the first rank 
in the crustacean nation. The first have very long, prehensile claws 
and a long, slender body; the latter have but small claws, but a 
larger spiny body, so rough that Tiberius Casar lacerated the 
face of a poor fisherman, by causing him to be rubbed with a 
craw-fish. 
The lobsters commence spawning in October, the craw-fish in 
September, and they terminate the period of their reproduction 
with the opening of the new year. The females of both species 
are very prolific, but it seems that the craw-fish lays considerably 
more eggs than the lobster—while the one produces 20,000, the 
other lays 120,000. These eggs are in clusters joined together by 
a peculiar, humid fluid. The manner in which the lobster arranges 
her eggs is interesting, for whether she bends or straightens her 
tail, they are never exposed to the light. Sometimes the eggs 
are left almost unmoved, and one of the neighbouring claws is 
used to slightly paint them with the viscid humour. When first 
emitted from the ovary the eggs are small, and seem to increase 
during the time they hang under the tail, and before they are 
committed to the sand or water, they have become the size of 
small shot. 
The evolution of the germ is in progress six months. At the 
moment of the hatching the female, by a movement of her tail, 
shakes the eggs backwards and forwards, and by this means breaks 
the shell, and frees the larva; in one or two days she has got 
rid of the whole of her burden. As soon as born, the young 
crustaceans leave the mother and rise to the surface of the water 
in order to gain the open sea. They swim ina circle. This roving 
