216 CRUSTACEANS. 



commercial sense, extended above six inches, the large claws nearly 

 eight, and the antennae towards ten. 



The tail is composed of seven segments. 



Another female, also laden with a profusion of roe, extended twelve 

 inches from the extremity of the rostrum, the length of the claws being 

 seven inches. 



The proper colour of the Lobster is understood to be pure black, 

 which is converted to red by boiling. Few, however, are pure or jet 

 black, and many parts of the under surface especially, are mottled in 

 various specimens, which even appears on the inner surface of the claws. 



Capsules, in thousands, invest the inner surface of the tail, often 

 appearing as a great mass, being affixed in five or six portions, both to 

 the bands by which it is crossed, or their appendages, and the margin of 

 the tail. These ova are minute, spherical, black, opaque, and united in 

 bunches like small black currants. On boiling some from a specimen in 

 the end of January, the colour was converted to red, exposing the black 

 eyes of the included embryo very conspicuously through the integument. 

 It is difficult to define the real dimensions of Lobsters ; great disparity 

 of size certainly prevails among them. Some, if not all the large, are 

 carried both from Scotland and other northern kingdoms, where none 

 are reckoned marketable, to London. 



I was indebted to Mr Gillespie Graham, an eminent Scotish archi- 

 tect, for inspection of part of a gigantic claw found near the Isle of 

 Skye above thirty years ago. This, the first or exterior joint, with the 

 forceps of the left claw, measured nine inches in length, four across 

 where broadest, and two and a half through where thickest. According 

 to ordinary proportions, the whole organ must have been between eigh- 

 teen and twenty-four inches in length, consequently, the entire animal 

 at least three or four feet long. 



The Lobster fishing is conducted on a considerable scale among 

 some of the Western Islands of Scotland, for the supply of the London 

 market. 



It is said that few are taken under nine inches length of the shell, 

 nor will the agents for the fishery, superintending the produce, receive 



