AUGUST 177 



five - and - twenty suits of armour, thereby passing 

 through as many intensely anxious, and perhaps 

 painful, crises. If the old suit cannot be skilfully 

 slipped off, the animal must inevitably die in torment 

 similar to those caused by the mediaeval peine forte 

 et dure. 



Even when all goes without a hitch, the lobster, after 

 casting his coat, remains in a soft and highly vulnerable 

 condition for more than a month, during which he is 

 diligently sought for as a gastronomic delicacy by cod, 

 skate, and other predatory fish (and in our waters there 

 are precious few fish that are not predatory). Taking 

 one consideration with another, the lobster's life, like 

 the late Sir W. Gilbert's policeman's, is not a happy one ; 

 for, apart altogether from human persecution, the rate 

 of mortality among adolescent and adult lobsters must 

 be very high. Fortunately they are a very prolific 

 race; one female, eighteen inches long, having been 

 known to produce as many as 160,000 eggs in a single 

 season. 



These reflections have been suggested by a glance 

 through the fascinating pages of the tenth and last 

 volume of the Cambridge Natural History, a work so 

 thorough and valuable that one may not complain that 

 sixteen years have run between the first and last issue. 

 Moreover, there exists a melancholy excuse for delay 

 in completing the series in the death of Professor 

 Weldon, who had the volume dealing with Crustaceans 

 in hand. This was no work for a 'prentice hand, for 

 crustaceans populate the waters almost as thickly as 

 insects do the air. The foundations, so well and truly 



M 



