CHAP, ix.] LOBSTER- FISHING. 385 



From personal inquiry made by the writer a few months 

 ago it was estimated that for the commissariat of London 

 alone there were required two millions and a half of crabs and 

 lobsters ! May we not, therefore, take for granted that the 

 other populous towns of the British empire will consume an 

 equally large number ? The people of Liverpool, Manchester, 

 Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin are as fond of shell-fish as 

 the denizens of the great metropolis ; at any rate, they eat all 

 they can get, and never get enough. The machinery for sup- 

 plying this ever-increasing demand for lobsters, crabs, and 

 oysters is exceedingly simple. On most parts of the British 

 coast there are people who make it their business to provide 

 those luxuries of the table for all who wish them. The capital 

 required for this branch of the fisheries is not large, and the 

 fishermen and their families attend to the capture of the crab 

 and lobster in the intervals of other business. The Scotch 

 laird's advice to his son to "be always stickin' in the ither 

 tree, it will be growin' when ye are sleepin'," holds good in 

 lobster-fishing. The pots may be baited and left till such 

 time as the victim enters, whilst the men in the meantime 

 take a short cruise in search of bait, or try a cast of their 

 haddock-lines a mile or two from the shore ; or the fishing can 

 be watched over, and when the lobsters are numerous, the 

 pots be lifted every half hour or so. The taking of shell-fish 

 also affords occupation to the old men and youngsters of the 

 fishing villages, and these folks may be seen in the fine days 

 assiduously waiting on the lobster-traps and crab-cages, which 

 are not unlike overgrown rat-traps, and are constructed of 

 netting fastened over a wooden framework, baited with any 

 kind of fish offal, or garbage, the stench of which may be 

 strong enough to attract the attention of those minor monsters 

 of the deep. A great number of these lobster-pots are sunk 

 at, perhaps, a depth of twelve or twenty fathoms at an appro- 

 priate place, being held together by a strong line, and all 



2 c 



