LOBSTERS. 25 



parallel the frying-pan and fire simile as applied to 

 lobster-life. In a few hours after I saw that big 

 crustacean, I doubt not he was popped into his funeral 

 urn. As I write, his nice blue-black shell will have 

 changed into the bright red of the boiled animal a 

 colour seen, by-the-way, in the lobster of a certain 

 classic picture intended to represent the native pro- 

 ducts of the sea as obtained in the miraculous draught 

 of fishes. 



By to-morrow, nothing will be left of him but his 

 shelly armour. He will have perished, as has many 

 a higher creature, in the work of making life brighter 

 and better in so far as lobster-salad can be said to 

 aid that desirable end and so runs the world away, 

 little recking of the wonderful amount of vital com- 

 plexity which it consumes even in its most common- 

 place fare. 



A certain great naturalist has used the lobster-kind 

 as the text or peg whereon to hang a very instructive 

 book of natural history science. In truth, I know of no 

 better task for a would-be naturalist than the attempt 

 to discover the ways and works of lobster-existence. 

 From its head to its tail the familiar crustacean is a 

 living wonder. That it is a poor relation of the crab 

 is a plain fact ; although why a " poor " connection 

 may not be quite so evident as is the relationship 

 itself. This matter resolves itself into a question of 

 tail and no tail. Early in life, crabs and lobsters are 

 tailed animals. Then your crab shortens the appen- 

 dage just named and tucks it up under his body 

 which, by-the-way, is all head and chest. 



The lobster keeps his youthful tail throughout life, 

 but poses as a lower animal than the crab in conse- 

 quence. He is nearer the groundlings of his race, in 



