90 LOBSTERS. 



about 6 to 7 years old, which was caught on the North ledges 

 in Swanage Bay on the 30th August last year by two fisher- 

 men, named George and Peter Coffin, and I felt the exhibition 

 of it, combined with the fish that originally occupied the 

 shell and was kept long enough to reform its new shell, would 

 not only prove useful illustrations from nature of some of 

 the points to which my paper refers, but form probably as 

 rare an exhibition as ordinarily falls to one's lot to possess 

 or to see. (See illustration.) 



In my capacity as Vice-Chairman of the Southern Sea 

 Fisheries District (one of the districts formed in 1885 by Act 

 of Parliament) these specimens were brought to me by the 

 Chief Fishery Officer of that district (Captain Alfred Masters) 

 as the circumstances were so unusually interesting. 



When the lobster was caught, it was " nicked " in the 

 usual way by the fishermen i.e., small wooden pegs 

 were thrust into the joints of its claws to prevent its " pinch- 

 ing " anybody, and was then placed in one of their store 

 trunks (a wooden box with numerous holes in to allow an 

 ample supply of water to be. maintained for the fish), and a 

 few days later, when requiring the lobster for the market, 

 they took it from the box, put it in the bottom of their boat, 

 and, to their astonishment, they suddenly saw the lobster 

 crack open its shell from the tip of the beak down to the end 

 of the carapace ; it then drew its body upwards, withdrawing 

 the flesh from the claws and legs, finally withdrawing 

 its tail from the shell, and then fell over into the bottom of 

 the boat apparently helpless. The whole operation occupy- 

 ing, they estimate, from 6 to 10 minutes. 



Unfortunately, not knowing the lobster was going to shed 

 its coat, no measurements were taken of the old shell, but 

 the length of the new shell is lOfin. from the tip of the beak 

 to the end of the tail. Had the old shell been measured, 

 one could have ascertained the extent of the growth of the 

 animal upon this occasion, but from the observations of 

 Herrick and others I think it was probably not less than lin. 

 to IJin. 



