THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. (J3 



any legislation on this point. The following extracts from the testimony relating to 

 this subject is interesting. A witness from London says (28): 



There is a difficulty in throwing back the berried hens. They are generally worth twice as much 

 as any other lobsters. The spawn is bruised and put into sauce, and makes better sauce than tho 

 Lobster itself. In salads it is boilod, and sprinkled over tho salad. It is a capital article of food. 

 flu- spawning hens are of value to the cooks, who won't have lobsters without spawn. The sale of 

 berried hens must not be prohibited, as it would be preventing the fishermen from taking the most 

 fish. The production of the lobster is so enormous that if a gauge were lixed the taking of a few 

 berried hens would make no appreciable difference. Berried hens arc in the best possible condition 

 as food. They form fresh spawn immediately after they have cast their spawn. If they have no spawn 

 outside, they are full of red coral inside. 



In his Report on the Fisheries of Norfolk, Bucklaud (2D) says: 



The lobster is never so good as when in the condition of a berried hen. Berried heus occur most 

 frequently in April, May, and June. They begin to lose their berries about July, but still many 

 berried hens occur in July. The use of the berries is almost entirely devoted to cooking; they are 

 used in many preparations by the West End chefs, especially for coloring and enriching sauces. Tho 

 "chefs" are also fond of coral out of the body of the lobster. 



The evidence of a manager of a shellfish factory in the Haymarket is quoted as 

 follows (29) : 



Mr. Sheppard, who boils lobsters for Scotts', at the top of the Haymarket, informs me that he has 

 taken from one lobster (weighing 3 to 3i pounds) 6 ounces of berries in the month of May. In August, 

 out of 100 lobsters he would not be able to get 6 ounces of eggs from the whole. On the 5th of August 

 he had 26 crabs, not one of which carried any spawn. In the mouth of May a great proportion of 

 these 26 hen crabs would be full of sp iwn. The eggs from the berried hens are used for coloring 

 various sauces; the berries are often mashed up in the sauce, a little anchovy added, and then it 

 is called "lobster sauce." In order to supply these eggs for sauce to the cooks, Mr. Sheppard has 

 collected in April and May from 14 to 18 pounds of lobster spawn. I find that there are 6,720 [eggs] in an 

 ounce of lobster spawn. Here, then, we have destroyed eggs which might have represented, say, in 16 

 pounds of eggs, no less than 1,720,320 lobsters. A very good substitute for lobster spawn could be 

 made by boiling logwood (!). He considers that all berried hens should be returned to the water all 

 the year round. 



The number of eggs borne by the female lobster is considered on pp. 50-55. A 

 15-inch lobster sometimes carries nearly 100,000 eggs, which weigh a pound. 



The reasons urged by the commissioners for not indorsing the recommendation to 

 prohibit the sale of berried lobsters are remarkable as examples of logic. Thus, they 

 said "if it were illegal to take berried lobsters it would not pay the fishermen in many 

 cases to pursue the lobster fishery. In the next place, the lobster, when berried, is 

 in the very best possible condition for food; and it would be as illogical, therefore, to 

 prohibit its capture as to prohibit the taking of full herrings." Furthermore, it is said 

 that if the sale of berried lobsters were made illegal " the fishermen would probably 

 remove the berries. The berries would no longer be seen in the market, but berried 

 lobsters would be killed as much as ever. Berried lobsters are, it must be remembered, 

 especially valuable; the berries are in great demand for sauce and for garnish for fish 

 and salad." (28, p. xvi.) "Accordingly," says a writer in the Quarterly Review (213), 

 " we must run the risk of exterminating a valuable animal to please our cooks." 



Mr. Bucklaud says again, in his Report on the Fisheries of Norfolk : 



There are, I regret to say, many difficulties in the way of preventing berried hens being destroyed, 

 the principal one being that, unlike the salmon, lobsters when carrying eggs are at their very best for 

 human food. Notwithstanding this.it must be evident that the destruction of so many lobsters in 

 the form of eggs must of necessity greatly tend to produce that scarcity of lobsters which is now being 

 felt in the London and other markets. 



