til 







M 



un lenieat h, and we accordingly find that be is moat serviceable i 

 countries ; and indeed experience ha* long tince taught us that he in 

 altogether unfitted for crossing rocky and stoop mountain*. As 

 however the more diminutive sue of the ass rendered him compara- 

 tively le-w important at a beast of burden, the ingenuity of mankind 

 early devised a meana of remedying this defect, by crossing the hone 

 and a**, and thus procuring an intermediate animal, uniting the size 

 and strength of the one with the patience, intelligence, and suro- 

 footedneas of the other. 



The Wild Ass, called Koulan by the Persians, is still common in 

 many parts of Central Asia. It stands much higher on its limbs than 

 the common ass, its legs are longer and more slender, and it U 

 altogether a more graceful and symmetrical unimul The mane U 

 composed of abort erect hair of a dusky colour and rather a woolly 

 texture; the colour of the budy is u uniform silvery gray, with a 

 broad coffee-coloured stripe extending down the back from the mane 

 to the tail, and crossed on the shoulder by a transverse band, as in the 

 domestic variety. The Koulau inhabits the parts of Central Asia 

 from 48 N. lat to the northern confines of India. They migrate 

 from north to south according to the season. In summer they are 

 commonly found about Lake Aral, but in autumn they collect in 

 vast troops under the conduct of a regular leader, and proceed 

 towards the south, arriving at Cutch and Quzcrat in October or 

 November, and returning northward again in the middle of spring. 

 The Persians and Tartars hold the flesh of thu Konlan in high esteem, 

 and hunt it in preference to all other descriptions of game. Olearius 

 assures us that he saw no fewer than thirty-two wild asses slain in one 

 day by the Shah of Persia and his court, the bodies of which were 

 sent to the royal kitchens at Ispahan ; and we know from Martial that 

 the epicures of Rome held the flesh of the Onager, or Wild Ass, in the 

 same estimation as we do veuisou ( ' Epig.' xiii. 97 ). 



From a passage in Pliny (lib. vu'L c. 44) it would appear that the 

 Onager inhabited Africa, and th.it the most delicate and best Savoured 

 laliaioneo, or fat foals, were brought from that continent to the Roman 

 markets. Leo African us repeats the same story of wild asses being 

 found in Africa, but no traveller has since met with them, and, so for 

 as we at present, know, the species is confined to Asia, It has even 

 retired from Syria and Asia Minor, where it was formerly found. 



AS-vU'AXS.the name of a species of Flying Squirrels. [ 



A^TAl'OLITES, in Zoology, one of the names given by ancient 



geologists to the fossil remains of the Long-Tailed or Lobster-like 



t :', ' M .';-, 



A'STACUS (Leach, Desmarest), a genus of Long-Tailed Crustaceous 

 Animals, including the common Lobster. It was formed by Groiiovius 

 from the genus Cancer of Linnaeus and of ancient authors, which also 

 comprised the Short-Tailed Crustaceous Decapods, with the exception 

 of /Jij.pa. Fabricius broke it down into the genera Pagurm, Galathea, 

 and Scyllarta ; leaving At'acui to represent a certain number of 

 Crustaceans, from which he afterwards, having the advantage of 

 DaldorfTs labours, separated the genera Palinurui, Pahrmon, Alpkeiu, 

 Ptnem, and Crangon. Our countryman Leach, in adopting the genus 

 as left in its last shape by Fabricius, separates from it the genus 

 Nepkropt, of which there is only one species recorded, the Norway 

 Lobster (titpkroyt \urcryicut). Desmarest adopts the views of Leach, 

 and the genus Attaciu is now reduced to very few species. 



Of these species the most interesting, from their commercial value 

 as food, are the common Lobster (Atlaou marintw) and the Craw-Fish 

 (Aftaetujluviatilui.) 



The Lobster U found in the greatest abundance on the rocky coasts 

 of this kingdom, in clear water of no very great depth, at the time of 

 depositing its eggs, about the middle of summer. Pennant mentions 

 the great quantities supplied to the London markets, in his time, from 

 the Orkneys and the eastern coasts of Scotland ; and states the number 

 annually brought in well-boats from the neighbourhood of Montrose 

 alone at 60,000 or 70,000. But almost incredible as the consumption 

 of this species is, nature baa provided for ita security by the most 

 profuse fecundity. Doctor Master says that he counted 12,444 eggs 

 under the tail of one female lobster, besides those that remained in 

 the body unprotnid. <l. 



Lobsters are very voracious, and the fishery for them is carried on 

 sometimes by means of traps, or ' poU ' (as they are called in some 

 places), made of twigs, baited with garbage, lowered into the sea and 

 marked by a buoy ; sometimes by nets baited with the same materials ; 

 mi'l in some countries, by torch-light, with the aid of a wooden 

 in-lit, which acts like a forccpx or a pair of tongs. 

 "f the best narratives of the habits of the lobster extant, is to 

 be found in the following letter from Mr. Travis, of Scarborough, to 

 Mr. Pennant, dated on the 25th October, 1788 : 



" We have vast numbers of fine lobsters on the rocks near our coast. 

 The large ones are in general in their best season from tli mi.!.!!.- of 

 October till the beginning of May. Many of tin- minll on"*, and some 

 few of the larger sort, are good all the summer. If they be 4J inches 

 long, or upwards, from the tip of the bead to the end of the back 

 . they are called sizeable lobsters. If only 4 inch"*, they are 

 esteemed half size; and when sold, two of t em n ir one 



of size. If they be under 4 inehcM, they are called Pawks, and are 

 not saleable to the carriers, though in reality they are in the summer 



months superior to the Urge ones in goodness. The pincers of one 

 of the lobster's large claws are furnished with knobs, and those of t 1,.- 

 other claw are always serrated. With tin- former it keeps firm hold 

 of the stalks of submarine plants, and with the latter it cuts and minces 

 its food very dexterously. The knobbed, or numb claw, as the fisher- 

 men call it, is sometimes on the right side, and sometimes on the left, 

 indifferently. It is more dangerous to be seized by them with the 

 cutting claw than the other ; but, in either case, the quickest way to 

 get disengaged from the creature is to pluck off its claw. It seems 

 peculiar to the lobster and crab when their claws are pulled off that 

 they will grow again, but never so large as at first. 



" The female or hen lobster does not east her shell the same year 

 that she deposits her ova, or in the common phrase, is ' in bcrr\ .' When 

 the ova first appear under her tail, they are very small and ext i 

 black ; but they become, in succession, almost as large it- 

 berries before they are deposited, and turn of a dark -brown colour, 

 especially towards the end of the time of her depositing them. They 

 continue full and depositing the ova in constant succession, as long as 

 any of that black substance can be found in their body, which when 

 boiled turns of a beautiful red colour, and is called their Coral II.:. 

 lobsters are found in berry at all times of the year, but chiefly in 

 winter. It is a common mistake, that a berried hen is alw 

 perfection for the table. When her berries appear large and brownish, 

 she will always be found exhausted, watery, and poor. Though thu 

 ova be cast at all times of the year, they seem only to come to lifu 

 during the worm summer months of July and August. Great numbers 

 of them may then be found, under the appearance of tadpoles, swim- 

 ming about the little pools left by the tides among the rock 

 many also under their proper form, from half an inch to four inches 

 in length. 



" In casting their shells, it is hard to conceive how the lobster is 

 able to draw the fish of their large claws out, leaving the - i 

 and attached to the shell of their body ; in which state they are 

 constantly found. The fishermen say the lobster pines before c.. 

 till the fish in its large claw is no thicker than tiie quill of a goose, 

 which enables it to draw its parts through the joinU and narrow 

 passage near the trunk. Thu new shell is quite membranous at first, 

 but hardens by degrees. Lobsters ouly grow in size while their shells 

 are in their soft state. They ore chosen for the table by their being 

 heavy in proportion to their size, and by the hardness of their shells 

 on their sides, which when in perfection will not yield to moderate 

 pressure. Barnacles and other small shell-fish adhering to them are 

 esteemed curtain marks of superior goodness. Cock-lobsters are in 

 general better than the hens in winter; they are distinguished by 

 the narrowness of their tails, and by their having a strong spine 

 upon the centre of each of the transverse processes beneath the tail 

 which support the four middle plates of their tails. The fish of a 

 lobster's claw U more tender, delicate, and easy of digestion, than 

 that of the tail. Lobsters are not taken here in pots, as is usual 

 where the water is deeper and more still than it is upon our coast 

 Our fishermen use a bag-net fixed to an iron hoop, about 2 feet in 

 diameter, and suspended by three lines like a scale. The bait is 

 commonly fish-guts tied to the bottom and middle of the net. They 

 can take none in th daytime, except when the water is thick and 

 opaque : they are commonly caught in the night ; but even then it is 

 not possible to toko any when the sea has that luminous appearaneo 

 which is supposed to proceed from the A'ereit nocliluca. In lununer, 

 the lobsters are found near the shore, and thence to about 6 fathoms 

 depth of water; in winter, they are seldom taken in less than PJ or 

 15 fathoms. Like other insects [crustaceans] they are murh more 

 active and alert in warm weather than in cold. In the water they 

 can run nimbly upon their legs or small claws, and if alarmed can 

 spring tail foremost to a surprising distance, as swift as a bird can 

 fly. The fishermen can see them pass about 30 feet, and by the 

 swiftness of their motion, suppose they may go much farther. Ath . 



.1 this circumstance, and Hays that the incurvated lobsters 

 will spring with the activity of dolphins. Their eyes are raised upon 

 moveable bases, which enables them to see readily every way. Wnea 

 frightened they will spring from a considerable distance to their hold 

 in the rock; and, what is not less surprising than true, will throw 

 themselves into their hold in that manner through an entrance i 



< for their bodies to pass, as is frequently seen by the people 



leavour to take thorn at Filey Bridge. In frosty weather, if 

 any happen to be found near the snore, they are quite torpid and 

 benumbed. A sizeable lobster U commonly from one pound bo 



in weight. There was one token here this summer which v, 

 above four pounds, and the fishermen say they have seen some which 

 were of six pounds, but these are very rare." 



There is no doubt that the lobster changes its shell annually ; but 

 the mode in which this operation is performed is 'only 



known. Some suppose that the old shell is thrown of)', Uk 

 animal retires to some lurking place to avoid the voracity of his 

 crust-clad fellows, till his new covering acquires sufficient hai-o 



'intend that the process is one of abnoi | .t i 



in proof of their views of the case, what becomes of the old shells 

 if tie re is a true ecdysis or moult, for that the sea-coast at the 

 moulting period would be strewed with them? The most pi' 

 conjecture is, that the shell sloughs off piecemeal as it docs in the. 



