Crustacea. 



91 



the British supplies — of which we have no very rehable 

 returns — the bulk of our imports come from Norway and 

 Sweden, and it may be interesting to glance at the statistics 

 of the trade generally. 



The British Fishery. — Lobsters are brought to Greenock 

 in large numbers from the western islands, chiefly from Skye, 

 in boxes containing from four to five dozen, and are there 

 transferred, for facility and economy of carriage by rail, to 

 tea chests, into each of which from 50 to 100 fish, according 

 to size, are carefully packed, and forwarded regularly and 

 in large quantities in this way to Liverpool, Manchester, 

 Birmingham, and London, in each of which towns is located 

 a branch of a great firm — originally of Aberdeen — to whom 

 are continually consigned enormous quantities offish from all 

 parts of the coast. Much more might be done on the coasts 

 of the British Islands in the matter of lobsters, especially in 

 Ireland. In a report on the Irish Fisheries, it was stated 

 that — " Lobsters may be taken in any quantity ; 20,000 

 or 30,000 a week might be easily captured on about 20 

 miles of the coast of Clifden, Buffen Island, and Bunown, 

 but the people have no means of taking them. They only 

 fish close to the shore, and large lobsters cannot go into the 

 pots used. Those of five or six pounds or eight or nine 

 pounds weight are only taken by clinging to the sides of 

 the pots ; and if the fishermen had boats sufficient to go 

 out to the rocks seven or eight miles off, they, with proper 

 gear, would take the finest fish in the world, and in the 

 greatest quantities. They may be had in season every day 

 in the year that men could venture out to set the pots, but 

 they never do so in the winter." The size and age to which 

 lobsters sometimes attain was evidenced by one caught a 

 few years ago in Plymouth Sound in a trawl net, which was 

 reported in the Field of June 2nd. Its length was, from the 



