490 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
I persuaded of the existence in them of psychical faculties, such as 
consciousness, intelligence, skill, and choice ; and that even in those 
forms in which as yet no nervous centres have been detected.” 
Lobsteks. 
In a dietary, as well as commercial sense, the lobster far excels the 
crab ; like the latter, they have an amazing fecundity, each femal e 
producing from twelve to twenty thousand eggs in a season ; and wisely 
is it so arranged, otherwise the consumption would soon exhaust there- 
in F 'ranee the size of the marketable lobster is regulated by la"', 
and fixed at twenty centimetres (eight inches) in length ; all under 
that size are contraband. Every year the inhabitants of BlainviH e 
proceed to Chaussey to fish fur lobsters. They are taken in baskets 
in the form of a truncated cone, the mouth of which is so arranged 
that the animal can enter, but cannot get out. The numbers caught 
by each fisherman and his family in a season may be estimated at a 
thousand or twelve hundred, which realise to the family thirteen ° r 
fourteen hundred francs, the season lasting about nine months. 
Lobsters are collected all round our own coast for the London 
market. On the Scottish shore they are collected and kept in p er ' 
forated chests floating on the water, until they can be taken away 
market. From the Sutherland coast alone six to eight thousand 
lobsters are collected in a season. This process goes on all round the 
coast, and as far as Norway, whence an enormous supply of the finest 
lobsters are obtained, for which something like £20,000 per annum i 0 
paid, all these contributions being conveyed to the Thames and 
Mersey in welled vessels. But these old-fashioned systems are 
being rapidly superseded by the construction of artificial storing 
ponds, or basins. Of these ponds Mr. Bichard Scovell has erected 
one at Harnble, near Southampton, in which he can store with ease 
fifty thousand lobsters, which will keep in good condition for elS 
weeks. Mr. Scovell’s tank is supplied from the coasts of Franck 
Scotland, and Ireland, where fine lobsters abound. He employs three 
large and well-appointed smacks, each of which can carry from & e 
thousand to ten thousand. On the coast of Ireland alone, it is sa J( 
ten thousand fine lobsters a week might be taken. 
d, 
