Chapter V.— LARGE LOBSTERS. 



THE GREATEST SIZE ATTAINED BY THE LOBSTER. 



Stories of gigantic lobsters made their appearance at a very early period, and 

 one could probably gather as many exaggerated accounts of this animal now as in 

 the days of Olaus Magnus. Time, however, has narrowed the bounds of credulity, 

 even among the ignorant, and we no longer hear some of the interesting legends 

 which, the old writers have carefully handed down. Thus Olaus Magnus tells us in 

 his description of northern lands and seas, 1 published in 1555, that between the 

 Orkneys and Hebrides there lived lobsters so huge that they could catch a strong 

 swimmer and squeeze him to death in their claws. His curious figures are copied 

 by Gesner (75), who has many others equal to any which are described in the old 

 mythologies. 



Giants are met with in all the higher groups of animals. They interest us not 

 only on account of their actual size, but also in showing to what degree individuals 

 may surpass the mean average of the race. It may be a question whether lobsters 

 which weigh from 20 to 25 pounds are to be regarded as giants in the technical sense, 

 or simply as sound and vigorous individuals on whose side fortune has always fought 

 in the struggle for life. I am inclined to the latter view, and to look upon the mam 

 moth lobster simply as a favorite of nature, who is larger than his fellows because he 

 is their senior; good luck has never deserted him until at last he is stranded on the 

 beach or becomes entangled in some fisherman's gear. 



Gesner gives a very poor figure of a lobster, but a very good drawing of the large 

 crushing-claw of one which he had preserved in his collection on account of its great 

 size. The length of this claw is 8^ inches, and its breadth at the junction of the 

 dactyl about 4 inches, so that it must have belonged to a lobster which weighed not 

 far from 8 pounds. 



Pontoppidans (152) relates a fable, which is repeated by Herbst (88) and others, of 

 the Storjer, or lobsters of huge size which fishermen reported having seen in Utvaer 

 in the Bay of Erien, Norway. One of these was so large and terrible that no one dared 

 to attack it, and it measured between its claws at least a fathom. This, says Herbst, 

 probably belongs with the Kracken, the natural products of Norwegian superstition. 



Boeck says that he had seen the claw 2 of a lobster which must have been about 

 18 inches long, and Sir John Graham Dalyell (50), according to Boeck, tells us, in The 

 Powers of the Creator, published in 1827, that he had seen a joint of the left claw of 

 a lobster which measured 9 inches in length. It does not follow, however, as Boeck 

 infers, that "the whole claw 2 must have measured 18 to 21 inches, and the whole 

 animal 3 to 4 feet." 



The European lobster of to-day seldom attains so great size as the American 

 species, and its average weight is considerably less. Buckland (28) gives the following 

 account of large lobsters from the British Islands: 



The Skye and Orkney lobsters are probably the largest in the British Islands. At St. Mawes ire 

 heard of two lobsters, one 10 pounds and the other 9$ pounds; and at Durgan and Sennen of one of 

 13 pounds. A large lobster was caught in a large earthenware pot at Gosport in 1870 which weighed 



1 Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Rome, 1555. 



-The word claic is here inaccurately used to meau the entire claw-bearing limb (cheliped). 



109 



