386 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



In a curious old bill rendered in the reign of 

 Charles II. to Mr. Walter Tucker, Mayor of Lyme, 

 Dorset, when entertaining the Judges on their assize 

 visit, occur the following items : — Thirty lobsters, £1 10s., 

 six crabs, 6s. ; 100 scallops, 5s. ; 400 oysters, 4s. That 

 the judges were partial to shell-fish seems evident, and 

 the comparison of prices then and now is remarkable. 



The Cape lobster (Palimcrus Lalandii, Lam.) is used as 

 food by the Cape colonists. This cray fish, peculiar to 

 the west coast and common in Table Bay, is easily 

 caught in vast numbers all the year round, and attains 

 a length of thirteen inches and a breadth of nearly five 

 inches. The flesh of the half -grown individual is tender 

 and delicate, while that of the adult is coarse and 

 difficult of digestion. To the poorer classes this cray- 

 fish is a regular God-send, and it is dried occasionally 

 for preservation. 



'' Crayfish and lobsters are very abundant on the west 

 coast of South America. At Juan Fernandez they are 

 found in such quantities that the fishermen have no 

 greater trouble to take them than to strew a little meat 

 or other bait upon the shore, and when they come to 

 devour it, as they do in immense numbers, to turn 

 them on their backs with a stick. By this simple 

 method manj'' thousands are taken annually, and the 

 tails, which are in high estimation, are dried and sent 

 to Chili. 



According to an article in Scribner's MontJtly, the 

 coast of Maine, with its deep indentations and its 

 numberless shoals and shallows, is, perhaps, the finest 

 lobster fishery in the world. In spring the lobster 

 migrates from the deeper, and consequently warmer 

 waters, and takes up his summer residence amongst the 

 shallows inshore. The period of this migration marks the 

 commencement of the principal lobster-harvest. Lobsters 

 may be caught at any season, but a State law forbids 

 their being " canned " at other times than between the 

 1st of March and the 1st of August. Lobsters of from 

 25 to 43 lbs. in weight are found exceptionally, but 



