808 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



common wherever there is a rocky bottom, especially near Montrose, Orkney, Lewis, and Harris 

 Island, and on the southern coast of England, near Land's End and the Scilly Islands. Near 'he 

 Channel Islands it is common, as well as near several groups of islands on the French coast. In 

 the Mediterranean it is not so common, although it is not entirely wanting; but its substitute as 

 an article of food is another large species of Cray-fish, the Langusta (Palinurus). It is, therefore, 

 not spread over a very large extent of sea; but it is found in its central locations in very large 

 numbers, and there becomes an important article of food and trade. 



" Its general size is eight to ten inches from the point of the spine on the forehead to the tip 

 end of the tail. It rarely exceeds this size where large fisheries are carried on ; but now and then 

 specimens of a much greater size are found in places from which none are exported, and where it 

 consequently has time to grow before it is caught. Thus, Pontoppidan, in his 'Norges uaturlige 

 Historic' (part ii, p. 279), says that the very large Lobsters are called ' Storjer,' and that near 

 Utvaer, on the Bay of Evien, a Lobster had been seen which was so large and ugly that nobody 

 dared to attack it, and that it measured a full fathom between the claws. This seems certainly to 

 be somewhat exaggerated ; but I myself have seen the claw of one which must have been about 

 eighteen inches long. Sir John Graham Dalyell says, in his work ' The Powers of the Creator,' 

 1827, that he had seen a joint of the left claw of a Lobster that measured nine inches in length. 

 According to this, the whole claw must have measured eighteen to twenty-four inches, and the 

 whole animal three to four feet. As a general rule, those that are taken in the fiords are larger 

 than those that are caught near the islands toward the sea. The color of the animal when 

 alive is generally a blackish-green, with several blue spots ; but it may also be lighter, especially 

 near the mouths of fiords, while farther out toward the sea it becomes much darker. I may 

 mention as a curiosity that during this year (1868) I found a Lobster near Haugesuud, one-half of 

 which was of a greenish-black and the other of a light-orange color, there being a sharp and 

 clearly defined dividing line, which ran lengthwise, and divided the Lobster in two halves of 

 equal size. 



"The Lobster lives close to the coast, where there is a rocky bottom, among the large algae; 

 but in winter, when the water grows cooler, it descends as far down as sixteen to twenty fathoms, 

 while in spring, when the temperature of the sea rises, it stays at a depth of from one to four 

 fathoms. It is altogether a coast animal, which very rarely seems to go any distance from its 

 birthplace, if it can readily find there a sufficient supply of food. Sometimes, however, they have 

 been seen in large masses swimming toward the land from the sea, and they have then been 

 Mil-Ill in nets, having been mistaken for a school of herrings; but this is only a consequence of 

 local migrations, when it goes from the deeper into the shallower waters. It is not able to make 

 its way through the sea for any length of time by swimming. Its structure certainly allows it to 

 make quick and definite movements, and it can swim freely about in the sea, but this swimming 

 never lasts long, as it cannot keep itself afloat very long. Neither is it able, while swimming, to 

 catch and swallow its food; but it seizes its prey only when it can hold on to something. At the 

 bottom of the sea it can chase its prey, if necessary, with great rapidity, but while eating it 

 remains quite still. The Lobster is a very greedy animal, and can swallow great quantities of 

 food, which it seems to find especially during the night by its scent, while during the day it keeps 

 quiet and digests. Its food consists chiefly of the roe of fish, and of dead fish, but likewise of 

 small crustaceans and other marine animals. When kept in confinement, it can live for a 

 considerable time without fowl. The Lobster seems to be able to propagate when it is a little 

 more than six inches long (at least, roe is only found in animals of this size) ; but when the 

 Lobster reaches a length of eight inches it contains a great quantity of roe. A real act of 



