14Q NATURAL HISTORY. 



was such as to give the statement probability. Massachusetts, New York, 

 and Maine have each passed stringent laws limiting the size of the lobsters 

 sent to the market, it being illegal in the former state to have in possession 

 lobsters less than ten and a half inches in length, measured from the tips 

 of the claws to the end of the body. 



From New York to Labrador the lobster-fishery is an important indus- 

 try. The animals are taken in ' lobster-pots,' — semi-cylindrical frame- 

 work of laths furnished at either end with a cord netting, in the centre of 

 which is the opening for the entrance of the crustaceans. Inside the trap 

 is placed the bait, which usually consists of dead fish, always of some 

 worthless sort like sculpins, cod-heads, etc. This attracts the lobsters and 

 crabs, and they soon make their way in ; but like rats in a trap, they do 

 not so soon find their way out again. The traps, each anchored by a 

 heavy stone, are sunk in favorable localities, — usually muddy or rocky bot- 

 toms, — and the position of each is indicated by a wooden float or buoy, 

 marked with an initial or cipher indicating the owner. A fisherman will 

 have from ten to a hundred of these pots, and each day he visits them, 

 hauling them to the surface and taking out the catch, at the same time 

 replacing the bait by new if necessary. It is made a crime to steal from 

 the lobster-pots, and yet such depredations are frequent. 



The lobsters caught are kept until needed for the market in large lat- 

 tice-work boxes or ' cars,' which are moored in such situations that there 

 will be an abundance of fresh water. The lobstermen handle them with 

 great fearlessness, and but rarely do they ' plug ' the claws. Occasionally 

 this is done, a wooden plug inserted so that the claws cannot be opened, 

 and hence the animal is deprived of all power of i biting.' Still, notwith- 

 standing their apparent carelessness, the lobstermen are always careful to 

 pick the animals up in one way, and it is seldom that they get pinched. 

 When needed for the market, the lobsters are plunged alive into boiling 

 water and cooked, a process which converts their dark green body into a 

 vivid brick-red. There is a celebrated picture of ' The Fisher's Return' 

 in which the artist depicts red lobsters. It is needless to say that he went 

 to the market for his models, for fishermen do not obtain boiled lobsters 

 from the sea. 



Tin- bulk of the lobster-fishery is conducted on the coasts of Massachu- 

 setts, Maine, and the Maritime British Provinces. In Massachusetts most of 

 the catch is sent direct to the market ; but farther down East there are im- 

 mense canning establishments which pack the lobsters in tin cans for ship- 

 ment to the markets of the interior. Of these factories there were twenty- 

 three in Maine in 1880, which that year put up some 9,500.000 pounds of 

 lobsters, while the Provincial canning establishments used an even larger 



