2Y0 A LOBSTEE-STOEE. 



ponds on a large scale, similar to that erected by Mr. Richard 

 ScQveU at Hamble, near Southampton. That gentleman's pond 

 has been of good service to him. It is about fifty yards 

 square, and is lined with brick, having a bottom of concrete, 

 aud was excavated at a cost of about £1200. It wUl store 

 ■with great ease 50,000 lobsters, and the animals may remain 

 in the pond as long as six weeks, with little chance of being 

 damaged. Lobsters, however, do not breed in this state of 

 confinement, nor have they been seen to undergo a change of 

 shell. There is, of course, an apparatus of pipes and sluices for 

 the purpose of supplying the pond with water. The stock is 

 recruited from the coasts of Prance and Ireland ; and to keep 

 up the supply Mr. Scovell has in his service two or three vessels 

 of considerable size, which visit the various fisheries and bring 

 the lobsters to Hamble in their capacious wells, each of which is 

 large enough to contain from 5000 to 10,000 animals. 



The west and north-west coasts of Ireland abound with fine 

 lobsters, and welled vessels bring thence supplies for the London 

 market, and it is said that a supply of 10,000 a week can easily 

 be obtained. Immense quantities are also procured on the west 

 coast of Scotland. A year or two ago I saw on board the 

 Islesman steamboat at Greenock a cargo' of 30,000 lobsters, 

 obtained cMefiy on the coasts of Lewis and Skye, The^value of 

 these to the captors would be upwards of £1000, and in the 

 English fishmarkets the lot would bring at least four times that 

 sum. 



A very large share of our lobsters is derived from Norway, 

 as many as 30,000 sometimes arriving from the fjords in a 

 single day. The Norway lobsters are much esteemed, and we 

 pay the Norwegians something like £20,000 a year for this one 

 article of commerce. They are brought over in welled steam- 

 vessels, and are kept in the wooden reservoirs already alluded 

 to, some of which may be seen at Hole Haven, on the Essex 

 side of the Thames. Once upon a time, some forty years ago, 

 one of these wooden lobster-stores was run into by a Russian 

 frigate, whereby some 20,000 lobsters were set adrift to sprawl 

 in the muddy waters of the Thames. In order that th« great 

 mass of animals confined in these places may be kept upon their 

 best behaviour, a species of cruelty has to be perpetrated to 

 prevent their tearing each other to pieces; the great claw is 

 there rendered paralytic by means of a wooden peg being driven 

 into a lower joint. 



