THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 59 



scooped up by the hundreds of thousands," and, as Rathbun says (158, p. 32), "a sort of 

 transplanting of young lobsters has been going on along the New England coast, and 

 especially the southern portion of it, ever since the well-smack lobster trade began." 

 As the vessels sail along, the newly hatched lobsters " work out through the holes in 

 the bottom of the well, and are thus constantly adding to the supply of the regions 

 through which the smacks pass." 



Peter Kalm relates in his Travels, under date of October, 1748, the following 

 interesting anecdote of the transplanting of lobsters around New York by the New 

 England fishing boats, which it seems carried wells: 



Lobsters arc likewise plentifully caught hereabouts, pickled much in the same way as oysters, 

 and sent to several places. I was told a very remarkable circumstance about these lobsters, and I have 

 afterwards frequently heard it mentioned. The coast of New York had already European inhabitants 

 for a considerable time, yet no lobsters were to be met with on that coast; and though the people 

 fished ever so often, they could never find any signs of lobsters being in this part of the sea. They 

 were, therefore, continually brought in great well boats from New England, where they are plentiful ; 

 but it happeued that one of these well boats broke in pieces near Hell Gate, about 10 English miles 

 from New York, and all the lobsters in it got off. Since that time they have so multiplied in this part 

 of the sea that they are now caught in the greatest abundance. {108, vol. 1, pp. 240-241.) 



It is well known that the crayfish protects her young after they are hatched and 

 carries them about under her tail, as Roesel so well described over a hundred years 

 ago. He says: 



If the mother of these little crayfish, after they begin to stir about, becomes quiet with her food 

 at any time, or for some other reason sits still, they begin to move away from her somewhat and to 

 crawl about her, but if they spy out the slightest danger, or there is any unusual movement in the 

 water, it seems as if the mother called them back by a signal, for they all at once quickly return under 

 her tail and gather into a cluster again, and the mother hurries off with them to a place of safety as 

 fast as she can. After a few days, however, they gradually leave her. {169, p. 336.) 



Huxley was the first to observe that the euds of the forceps or large claws of the 

 young crayfish are bent into "abruptly incurved hooks," by means of which the young 

 cling to the mother. He says: 



Immediately after the young are set free, they must instinctively bury the ends of their forceps 

 in the hardened egg glue which is smeared over the swimmerets, for they are all found to be holding 

 on in this manner. They exhibit very little movement, and they bear rough shaking or handling 

 without becoming detached, in consequence, I suppose, of the interlocking of the hooked ends of 

 the chelas embedded in the egg glue. Even after the female has been plunged into alcohol the young 

 remain attached. I have had a female, with young affixed in this manner, under observation for five 

 days, but none of them showed any signs of detaching themselves ; and I am inclined to think that 

 they are set free only at the first molt. After this it would appear that the adhesion to the parent is 

 only temporary. {103, pp. 43-44.) 



The young lobster has no organs for attaching itself to the mother. Its large claws 

 do not end in sharp hooks (fig. 33, plate 20), as in the crayfish, and when once set free, it 

 never again finds shelter under the body of the parent. I have noticed that the young 

 of Pontonia domestica (a delicate West Indian prawn, which lives as a commensal in 

 the shell of the Pinna), when hatched in an aquarium, usually keep together in a ball 

 or cluster, like a swarm of gnats, a habit which is doubtless shared by many of the 

 prawns, but they never seek protection from the mother, who lives in the mantle 

 chamber of the mollusk. Young lobsters which are hatched and kept in the aquarium 

 swarm up to the surface or go to the bottom of the jar when closely confined, but if 

 given greater liberty they tend to scatter. A swarming or gregarious habit would be 

 fatal to this species, on account of its inborn pugnacity and cannibalism. 



