CRUSTACEOUS FISHES. 



G63 



CHAPTER CLI. 



CRUSTACEOUS ANIMALS OF THE LOBSTER KIND. 



HOWEVER different in figure the lobster 

 and the crab may seem, their manners and 

 conformation are nearly the same. With all 

 the voracious appetites of fishes, they are 

 condemned to lead an insect life at the bot- 

 tom of the water ; and, though pressed by 

 continual hunger, they are often obliged to 

 w (it till accident brings them their prey. 

 Though without any warmth in their bodies, 

 or even without red blood circulating through 

 their veins, they are animals wonderfully 

 voracious. Whatever they seize upon that 

 has life, is sure to perish, though never so 

 well defended ; they even devour each other: 

 and, to increase our surprise si ill more, they 

 may, in some measure, be said to eat them- 

 selves ; as they change their shell and their 

 stomach every year, and their old stomach is 

 generally the first morsel that serves to glut 

 the new. 



The lobster is an animal of so extraordinary 

 a form, that those who first see it are apt to 

 mistake the head for the tail; but it is soon 

 discovered that the animal moves with its 

 claws foremost ; and that the part which 

 plays within itself by joints, like a coat of 

 armour, is the tail. The two great claws 

 are the lobsters instruments of provision and 

 defence ; these, by opening like a pair of 

 nippers, have great strength and take a firm 

 hold ; they are usually notched like a saw, 

 which still more increases their tenacity. 

 Besides these powerful instruments, which 

 may be considered as arms, the lobster has 

 eight legs, four on each side, and these, with 

 the tail, serve to give the animal its progres- 

 sive and sideling motion. Between the two 

 claws is the animal's head, very small, and 

 furnished with eyes that seem like two black 

 horny specks on each side; and these it has 

 a power of advancing out of the socket, and 

 drawing in at pleasure. The mouth, like 

 that of insects, opens the long way of the 

 body, not crossways, as with man, and the 



higher race of animals. It is furnished with 

 two teeth for the comminution of its food ; 

 but, as these are not sufficient, it has three 

 more in the stomach ; one on each side, and 

 the other below. Between the two teeth 

 there is a fleshy substance, in the shape of a 

 tongue. The intestines consist of one long 

 bowel, which reaches from the mouth to the 

 vent, but what this animal differs in from all 

 others, is, that the spinal-marrow is in the 

 breast-bone. It is furnished with two long 

 feelers or horns, that issue on each side of 

 the head, that seem to correct the dimness 

 of its sight, and apprize the animal of its dan- 

 ger, or of its prey. The tail, or that jointed 

 instrument at the other end, is the grand in- 

 strument of motion : and with this it can raise 

 itself in the water. Under this we usually 

 see lodged the spawn in great abundance ; 

 every pea adhering to the next by a very fine 

 filament, which is scarcely perceivable. Every 

 lobster is a hermaphrodite, and is supposed 

 to be self-impregnated ! The ovary, or place 

 where the spawn is first produced, is back- 

 wards towards the tail, where a fed sub. 

 stance is always found, and which is nothing 

 but a cluster of peas, that are yet too small 

 for exclusion. From this receptacle there go 

 two canals, that open on each side at the 

 jointures of the shell, at the belly; and 

 through these passages the peas descend to 

 be excluded, and placed under the tail, 

 where the animal preserves them from dan- 

 ger for some time, until they come to maturity; 

 when being furnished with limbs and motion, 

 they drop off into the water. 



When the young lobsters leave the parent, 

 they immediately seek for refuge in the 

 smallest clefts of rocks, and in such like 

 crevices at the bottom of the sea, where the 

 entrance is but small, and the opening can 

 be easily defended. There, without seeming 

 to take any food, they grow larger ui a few 

 weeks time, from the mere accidental sub- 



