30 Short Papers and Notes. 
seemed to point at reason rather than instinct in the lobster. One 
had his home for a time in a hole under a rock where the water 
was about five feet deep. Thinking to catch him, I made a noose 
at the end of a fish-line, and by means of a stick spread it care- 
fully around the hole ; then let down a piece of menhaden, hold- 
ing it six or eight inches in front. The lobster soon reached out 
to take such a nice morsel, when, by jerking the string, I had him 
noosed around one of his big claws near the end; but after I had 
him half out of his hole the string slipped off and he got back. 
However, I had no doubt of catching him the next time, so, 
spreading the noose as carefully again, and again letting down the 
piece of menhaden, I awaited results, when, instead of boldly 
putting out his claws as before, he first put his feelers through the 
noose, and with a waving motion felt the string all the way 
around, then rooted one claw under the string and grabbed the 
bait. I finally had to give up all thoughts of getting him, and 
came away firmly believing that until this fellow dies of old age, 
the lobster will not be exterminated in our waters.—W. Nye, jun., 
in Bull., U.S., Fish. Comm. 
Making the most of Wature’s hot Springs. 
In the Yellowstone country a large hotel is erected upon a 
great geyser terrace, and a dormant water-crater is the receptacle 
for all the house-drainage ; and in the same romantic region the 
Chinese laundry-man attached to one of the hotels gets through 
his labours by throwing the clothes into a bubbling, frothy pool, 
and fishing them out when they have been tossed about enough. 
Eggs are often boiled in the Iceland geysers, and bacon is fried on 
the Hawaiian lava streams. In the Rotorua area of New Zealand 
the banks of the lake are so perforated with springs that every 
native hut has its own natural boiler, which is used as a kitchen. 
The Kuirua spring is strongly alkaline, and, on account of its 
saponaceous qualities, is utilised as a general wash-tub. In Ice- 
land to cook food in the geysers is a regular portion of the tourist 
programme. Tea is infused with water from the Great Geyser, 
and trout are boiled in the Blesi, or hot-water pond, which sud- 
denly ceased to erupt after the Skaptar-Jokull convulsion of 1784. 
They require to be immersed for about twenty minutes to be 
cooked to a turn. In the Yellowstone country a story is told of a 
fisherman, who having hooked a fine trout merely turned on his 
heel, and, without taking his captive off the line, plunged it into a 
pool of hot water, from which in a short time he drew it ready for 
his meal, reminding us of Lord Lovat, the Jacobite rebel, who, 
when luncheon-time approached, betook himself to a fall on his , 
estate famous for its leaping salmon, and placed a cauldron of 
