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 worms, 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 
zan 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 d2- 
fenceless imbecility continues for a very short time; 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 
time 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 
