384 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



heavy stone, suiEcient to sink it, is placed inside. They 

 are baited with the heads or offal of fresh fish, and sunk 

 to the bottom at about low water mark ; the other end 

 of the line is made fast to a block of light wood, called a 

 buoy. The fishermen go out with their wherries freighted 

 with these pots, and drop them at short intervals along 

 the shore. During the season of lobster fishing, which 

 lasts from March to July in America, hundreds of these 

 buoys may be seen bobbing up and down like so many 

 seals' heads. The fishermen visit them every morning, 

 draw them up alongside of their boats, take out the 

 lobsters, replenish the bait, and drop them again into 

 the water. The lobsters, when first taken, are very 

 fierce, and seize with their strong pincers upon whatever 

 may be within their reach. When thrown together in 

 the boat they will grapple and tear oiF each other's feelers 

 and legs. Without much care in handling them the 

 fingers of the fishermen get many a hard bite. To pre- 

 vent them from injuring each other, the fishermen pro- 

 vide sharp-pointed wooden pegs, which they insert into 

 the joint or hinge of their pincers; this prevents them 

 from closing. When they have visited all their pots 

 they row to the landing-place. If they now wish to 

 preserve them for several days, they put them into a 

 long box or kennel, made of plank, and bored full of 

 holes, which is moored in the water at a little distance 

 from the shore. If they wish to prepare them imme- 

 diately for market, they are taken ashore in hand- 

 barrows and carried to a sort of shed, in which is 

 fixed a large cauldron in which they are boiled. In 

 some parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence lobsters are 

 so plentiful that, notwithstanding their increased com- 

 mercial value since the foundation of this new industry, 

 good, marketable lobsters are used to manure the fields. 

 " The heavy gales of August, 1873," writes the pro- 

 prietor of a large establishment at Shippegan, " drove 

 more lobsters ashore within five miles of my packing- 

 houses, than I could make use of during the whole sum- 

 mer. They formed a row from one to five feet deep, and 



