LOBSTER DEPOTS. 227 



draw the crab from its nest; or great fun may be enjoyed 

 by tying during low- water a piece of bait to a string, and 

 attaching to the other end a stone. The crab seizes upon 

 this bait whenever the tide flows, and drags it to its hole, 

 so that when the ebb recurs the stone at the end of the 

 cord enables you to track the animal to its hiding-place, 

 and pounce upon it. 



Lobsters are collected and sent to London from all 

 parts of the coast, being packed in sea- weed and sent in 

 boxes by railway. At Thames Haven is a famous depot 

 for the Norwegian and Scotch lobsters. They arrive in 

 welled vessels, and are kept in large store-boxes, as 

 already described, until wanted. A considerable trade 

 in these crustaceans is carried on between the Orkney 

 Islands and Aberdeen. At Hamble, near Southampton, 

 the lobsters are kept in a kind of reservoir or store-pond, 

 about fifty yards square, lined with brick, having a bot- 

 tom of concrete, and being constantly supplied with a 

 lively current of sea-water. Here they may be kept as 

 long as six weeks without suffering any injury, and forty 

 thousand to fifty thousand can easily be accommodated. 

 In the wooden boxes they live at such close quarters that 

 their combative tendencies are easily excited; and to 

 prevent them from mutilating each other, or repeating 

 the experiment of the Kilkenny cats, the great claw is 

 paralyzed by means of a wooden peg run through the 

 lower joint. 



