339 



young of the lobster should be found capable of practical 

 application, it may be hopefully anticipated that a check 

 will at length be given to that most pernicious practice of 

 utilising the spawn or berry of the lobsters for culinary 

 purposes. Tens or even hundreds of millions of lobster 

 eggs, each egg representing a potential lobster, are thus 

 wastefully consumed in this country year after year. The 

 late Mr. Frank Buckland, who was one of the most strenu- 

 ous protesters against this wanton destruction of lobster 

 spawn, thus writes, in the year 1875, in his "Report upon 

 the Fisheries of Norfolk " " It must be evident that the 

 destruction of so many lobsters in the form of eggs must of 

 necessity greatly tend towards producing the scarcity of 

 lobsters which is now being felt in the London and other 

 markets." As an illustration of the quantity of lobster 

 eggs that are used by the cooks who must and will have it 

 for colouring fish sauces and for decorative purposes, it will 

 be found stated in the same Report that no less than from 

 14 to 1 8 Ibs. of lobster spawn have been supplied by a 

 single collector in this manner for culinary purposes during 

 the two months of April and May. The number of eggs 

 contained in this mass of spawn amounted at the very least, 

 in Mr. Buckland's estimate, to 1,720,320, and this figure 

 represents, it must be borne in mind, but an unimportant 

 fraction of the sum total that is consumed for a like pur- 

 pose throughout the realms of the United Kingdom. Now, 

 what would be thought of the individual who advocated or 

 carried into practice the utilisation of the eggs of the 

 salmon for a similar purpose* : would any term of oppro- 

 brium that might be levelled against him be considered too 



* I am informed, on good authority, that salmon spawn, cooked and 

 eaten after- the manner of green peas, is not an altogether unknown 

 delicacy in certain parts of Ireland. 



Z 2 



