THE COMMON LOBSTER. 355 



Sutc of imbecility when changing their shell. 



shell opens first at the junctures of the belly, and 

 by a similar operation it is discharged of its claws, 

 and in a short time the creature is at liberty, but 

 so weak that it continues for some time motion- 

 less, possessing the softness and timidity of a 

 worm, and they fall a prey by hundreds to the 

 dog fish, the cod, and the ray. This state of im- 

 becility, however, remains for a short time, and 

 when the lobster is completely equipped in its 

 new shell, it will appear to have increased above 

 a third in its size; and we are astonished how 

 the deserted shell could have contained so large 

 an animal as that which entirely fills up the 

 new. 



It is supposed, in order to account for the 

 speedy growth of the shell, that the lobster pos- 

 sesses in itself a fluid of a petrifying quality; but 

 this is, in fact, only explaining one mystery by 

 another. Who can forbear exclaiming, in the 

 words of Goldsmith, " let us pause a little, to 

 reflect on the wonders this extraordinary crea- 

 ture otters to our imagination ! an animal with- 

 out bones on the inside, yet furnished with a 

 stomach capable of digesting the hardest sub- 

 stances, the shells of muscles, of oysters, and 

 even its own ; an animal gaining a new stomach 

 and a new shell at stated intervals ; furnished 

 with the instruments of generation double in 

 both sexes, and yet with an apparent incapacity 

 of uniting ! Without red blood circulating through 

 the body, and yet apparently vigorous and ac- 

 2 Y 2 



