CRUSTACEA — LOBSTER. 783 



meeting with diminutive plunder. The spawn of fish, the smaller animals 

 of their own kind, but chiefly the worms that keep at the bottom of the sea, 

 supply them with plenty. They keep in this manner close among the rocks, 

 busily employed in scratching up the sand with their claws for Avorms, or 

 surprising such heedless animals as fall within their grasp ; thus they have 

 little to apprehend, except from each other ; for in them, as among fishes, 

 the large are the most formidable of all enemies to the small. 



But this life of abundance and security is soon to have a most dangerous 

 interruption ; for the body of the lobster still continuing to increase, while 

 its shell remains unalterably the same, the animal becomes too large for its 

 habitation, and imprisoned within the crust that has naturally gathered 

 round it, there comes on a necessity of getting free. The young of this kind, 

 therefore, that grow faster, as we are assured by the fishermen, change their 

 shell oftener than the old, who come to their full growth, and who remain in 

 the same shell often for two years together. In general, however, all these 

 animals change their shell once a year ; and this is not only a most painful 

 operation, but also subjects them to every danger. Just before casting its 

 shell, it throws itself upon its back, strikes its claws upon each other, and 

 every limb seems to tremble ; its feelers are agitated, and the whole body is 

 in violent motion ; it then swells itself in an unusual manner, and at last 

 the shell is seen beginning to divide at its junctures. It also seems turned 

 inside out; and its stomach comes away with its shell. After this, by the 

 same operation, it disengages itself of the claws, which burst at the joints; 

 the animal, with a tremulous motion, casting them off" as a man would kick 

 off" a boot that was too big for him. 



Thus, in a short time, this wonderful creature finds itself at liberty ; but 

 in such a weak and enfeebled state, that it continues for several hours mo- 

 tionless. Indeed, so violent and painful is the operation, that many of them 

 die under it ; and those which survive are in such a weakly state for some 

 time, that they neither take food nor venture from their retreats. Immedi- 

 ately after this change, they have not only the softness, but the timidity of a 

 worm. Every animal of the deep is then a powerful enemy, which they 

 can neither escape nor oppose; and this, in fact, is the time when the dog- 

 fish, the cod, and the ray, devour them by hundreds. But this state of de- 

 fenceless imbecility continues for a very short lime; the animal, in less than 

 two days, is seen to have the skin that covered its body, grown almost as 

 hard as before ; its appetite is seen to increase ; and, strange to behold ! the 

 first object that tempts its gluttony, is its own stomach, which it so lately 

 was disengaged from. This it devours with great eagerness; and, some 

 lime after, eats even its former shell. In about forty-eight hours, in propor- 

 tion to the animal's health and strength, the new shell is perfectly formed, 

 and as hard as that which was but just thrown aside. 



When the lobster is completely equipped in its new shell, it then appears 

 how much it has grown in the space of a very few days ; the dimensions 



