abdomen and. claws is wanting. 


340 KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 

1829, one million, three hundred and twenty 
thousand; 1830 to 1835, seven hundred and 
eighty- -four_ thousand: making a grand total of 
three millions, six hundred and thirty-six 
thousand.” 
A. single Lobster costs in Norway three-half- 
pence; a trifling duty is laid upon them when 
they leave the country. ‘The London market 
chiefly monopolises the supply. The Norway 
Lobster season is in the winter; then then bite 
more freely: they are not caught in June. ‘This 
differs from the times Lobsters are caught in this 
part of the coast. The Portland and North Shore 
Lobster-catcher prepares his pots about March, 
and continues them as long as the weather will 
permit—that alone deciding him when to bring 
his pots ashore. Warm and fine weather are here 
necessary to the success of the Lobster-catcher. 
Here, as elsewhere, the color of the Lobste1 
varies very much ; and the fishermen can tell by 
the color whether it has been caught off Portland 
or the North Shore, distant about eight miles from 
each other. . 
The Norway Lobsters are purchased before they 
are caught. ‘They pass the time between capture 
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and embarkation in flat tanks, pierced with holes, 
and half sunk, lying off the neighborhood of 
Laurvig; in this manner they wait weeks, and 
even months, before they are shipped for market. 
The Norway Lobsters are smaller than those 
which are caught on the English coast ; they also 
vary much in color, some being of a light blue, or 
occasionally one side is black; whilst the other is 
white—this is a rarity. They fight a great deal 
amongst themselves: hence the great number of 
one-clawed Lobsters we see on the fishmongers 
stalls. 
Lobsters are naturally voracious ; but “ during 
their confinement,” says Mr. Latham, “ they eat 
nothing ;”’ my experience tells me they will eat if 
they can get food; but they are generally packed 
close with no food, sothat they have no opportunity 
of following their inclinations. Any judge of a 
Lobster can tell whether it has been fresh caught 
or if it has been caught some time and kept 
in a preserve. When they have been kept 
some time, the. epicure’s portion, commonly 
called the dressing, suffers, both in quantity 
and quality, and the creamy substance round the 
Kemales in spawn placed in the tanks are said 
to remain so; this may happen from the altered 
condition of the temperature of the water: it 
cannot arise from the will of the adult any more 
than could-the hatching of the eggs be interfered 
with by the moth or butterfly. An export duty is 
paid before they leave Norway. 
When they arrive in the Thames, all the dead 
ones are thrown overboard, asit is illegal to land 
them. Besides Laurvig, Christiansand and Bergen 
have a large share in the Lobster trade 
Mr. Bell states, in “ British Crustacea,” a 
curious story respecting the strong affection of the 
Lobster for its young.—One man told Mr. Peach 
that he had noticed the old Lobster with her head 
peeping from under arock, and the young ones 
playing around her. She appeared to rattle her 
claws on the approach of the fishermen, and _her- 
self and young took shelter under.the rock. Thus 
far it is quite credible; but the remark, this rattling 



no doubt was to give the alarm,—to this I cannot 
subscribe. _ Lobsters are gregarious, and have 
their favorite rocks, and that instinct of  self- 
preservation which is born with animals is quite 
sufficient to drive the young Lobster under the 
rock at the approach of danger without the care of 
the parent. The real instinct of animals, even in 
the lower orders, is sufficiently wonderful without 
our drawing on fiction. I know from experience 
that fishermen are not always to be depended upon; 
and, whether from ignorance or something else, are 
muck given to exagyveration 
My father tells me he once caught a Lobsterin 
a trawl, weighing twelve pounds; and two years 
since, a Lobster was caught in this bay weighing 
eight pounds 
The last article we purpose to notice, is 
that from the pen of Mr. G. B. Atkinson, of 
Cork. We wish it were possible to print it 
in golden letters. It deserves that honor. 
He will agree with us, we feel quite sure, that 
if mankind are ‘‘civilised,” they have a 
remarkably “odd” way of showing it 
NATURALISTS AND THEIR BRUTALITY 
It is with the deepest regret that, as each 
month’s number of ‘‘'The Naturalist” comes to 
me, I find in its contents little else but accounts 
of wholesale massacres of those sweet songsters, 
whose ‘presence enhances so greatly the pleasure 
one must ever feel in a country walk. A constant 
war seems to be waged against the feathered 
members of creation, on the plea of furthering the 
ends of Science. Should any rare bird make its 
appearance on our shores, it is very soon captured 
by some greedy collector of “ specimens, ’—one who 
styles himself a “ Naturalist :” but does the being 
a Naturalist consist in filling one’s study or 
museum with stuffed birds—with empty egg-shells 
and nests? Are they not all rather monuments of 
cruelty ? Does the killing of its subjects further 
the ends of Natural History? Forsooth, if the 
slaughter increases as it does now, by-and-bye there 
will be no Natural History at all; or at least but 
afew scattered remnants of its countless tribes, 
mourning in solitude their lost companions. Are 
there then no other means of acquiring a know- 
ledge of Nature’s subjects than those I so strongly 
reprobate? How did some of our most learned 
Naturalists, those who have taught us the most, 
obtain their knowledge ? Was it by means of the 
gun? Ah, no! but by observation, by diligent 
searching into the ways of these happy denizens 
of the woods. Surely books enough have been 
written, and are daily increasing, to supply every 
want of a Naturalist; or should we disdain to 
ake use of them for our guides, can we not see 
for ourselves? Among so many learned corres- 
pondents as there are to this publication, some 
plan might be contrived,whereby we could under- 
stand and know, as far as is permitted, these 
wondrous members of creation, not one of which 
falls to the ground unless God wills it; and which 
would dispense with the cruel persecution now 
almost universally resorted to. Should this succeed | 
in softeningthe hearts of any of those whose 
names so frequently figure at the head of Orni- 
thological and Entomological captures, it will be 
an abundant repayment—its pages will be filled 
