august 



XXXI 



How truly did Charles Kingsley write in the Water 



Babies : ' All the ingenious men, and all the 

 Crustaceans . ,.„ j n i.i j? -j? i 



scientmc men, and all the lanciiul men in 



the world, with all the old German bogey painters into 



the bargain, could never invent anything so curious 



and ridiculous as a lobster.' A casual observer might 



conclude that a lobster, being cased in plate armour 



■cap-ck-pie, should be more immune from injury than 



most other creatures. He cannot bark his shins, nor 



sprain an ankle, nor suffer from toothache (which, I 



take it, constitute three of the sorest minor miseries of 



human existence), seeing that he possesses neither shins, 



ankles, nor teeth. It is true that, being insatiably 



pugnacious, he may lose a limb or two in intercourse 



with his kind, but pazienza ! the lost member will be 



replaced in a short time. 



A lobster's armour has but one defect; it requires 



to be shed at intervals. The creature thrives and 



grows, but his rigid panoply remains of the original 



size; wherefore what was at Christmas a faultless fit, 



has become by Eastertide unendurably tight. It is 



calculated that a four-year-,old lobster, measuring ten 



inches in length, has outgrown and had to cast away 



176 



