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supply of this crustacean, obtained in British waters, to 

 meet the public demand, may be gained from the statistics 

 contained in the Government Report upon the Crab and 

 Lobster Fisheries, published in the year 1877. Herein it 

 is shown that, upon an average, no less a number than one 

 million of lobsters are imported annually into the United 

 Kingdom, in the living state, from Norway alone, which is 

 the chief source of our supply, this million, at the date 

 quoted, representing a money value of about 22,500. 



Statistics are likewise here given of the numbers of 

 lobsters annually derived from different portions of the 

 British coast line, the keynote and burden of the whole 

 report being, however, the unwelcome, but only too familiar 

 intelligence, that lobsters are continually becoming scarcer 

 and dearer, and that the fishermen have, year by year, to 

 go further afield, dividing the large profits, once accruing to 

 the few, among the many, to meet the requirements of the 

 market. The lobster, not many years since within easy 

 reach of all members of the community, is in fact rapidly 

 following the lead of the native oyster, and threatens soon 

 to be a luxury at the disposal only of the wealthy. A 

 quotation from the report already referred to will suffice 

 to establish this assertion. Here is the testimony we find 

 on many a page. England and Wales : " Crabs and lobsters 

 are decreasing ; they are overfished." " The grounds in- 

 shore . have been fished out, and the men have to go to 

 deeper water." Scotland : " A very large majority of the 

 witnesses, with special means of arriving at a just conclusion 

 on the subject, are satisfied that the crab and lobster 

 fisheries of Scotland are in a state of gradual decay." Of 

 Norway, our richest source of supply, a Mr. Fisher, one of 

 the Billingsgate salesmen most extensively engaged in the 

 Norwegian lobster trade, gives evidence thus : " The 



