THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
59 
scooped up by the hundreds of thousands,” and, as Rathbun says (158, p. 32), u a sort of 
transplanting of young lobsters has been going on along the New England coast, and 
especially the southern portion of it, ever since the well-smack lobster trade began.” 
As the vessels sail along, the newly hatched lobsters “ work out through the holes in 
the bottom of the well, and are thus constantly adding to the supply of the regions 
through which the smacks pass.” 
Peter Kahn relates in his Travels, under date of October, 1748, the following 
interesting anecdote of the transplanting of lobsters around New York by the New 
England fishing boats, which it seems carried wells: 
Lobsters are likewise plentifully caught hereabouts, pickled much in the same way as oysters, 
and sent to several places. I was told a very remarkable circumstance about these lobsters, and I have 
afterwards frequently heard it mentioned. The coast of New York had already European inhabitants 
for a considerable time, yet no lobsters were to be met with on that coast; and though the people 
fished ever so often, they could never find any signs of lobsters being in this part of the sea. They 
were, therefore, continually brought in great well boats from New England, where they are plentiful ; 
but it happened that one of these well boats broke in pieces near Hell Gate, about 10 English miles 
from New York, and all the lobsters in it got off. Since that time they have so multiplied in this part 
of the sea that they are now caught in the greatest abundance. (108, vol. 1, pp. 240-241.) 
It is well known that the crayfish protects her young after they are hatched and 
carries them about under her tail, as Roesel so well described over a hundred years 
ago. He says : 
If the mother of these little crayfish, after they begin to stir about, becomes quiet with her food 
at any time, or for some other reason sits still, they begin to move away from her somewhat and to 
crawl about her, but if they spy out the slightest danger, or there is any unusual movement in the 
water, it seems as if the mother called them back by a signal, for they all at once quickly return under 
her tail and gather into a cluster again, and the mother hurries off with them to a place of safety as 
fast as she can. After a few days, however, they gradually leave her. (16.9, p. 336.) 
Huxley was tbe first to observe that tlie ends of tlie forceps or large claws of tlie 
young crayfish are bent into u abruptly incurved hooks,” by means of which the young 
cling to the mother. He says: 
Immediately after the young are set free, they must instinctively bury the ends of their forceps 
in the hardened egg glue which is smeared over the swimmerets, for they are all found to be holding 
on in this manner. They exhibit very little movement, and they bear rough shaking or handling 
without becoming detached, in consequence, I suppose, of the interlocking of the hooked ends of 
the chela; embedded in the egg glue. Even after the female has been plunged into alcohol the young- 
remain attached. I have had a female, with young affixed in this manner, under observation for five 
days, but none of them showed any signs of detaching themselves; and I am inclined to think that 
they are set free only at the first molt. After this it would appear that the adhesion to the parent is 
only temporary. (103, pp. 43-44.) 
Tbe young lobster bas no organs for attacbing itself to tbe mother. Its large claws 
do not end in sharp books (fig. 33, plate 20), as in tbe crayfish, and when once set free, it 
never again finds shelter under tbe body of tlie parent. I have noticed that tbe young 
of Pontonia domestica (a delicate West Indian prawn, which lives as a commensal in 
tbe shell of tbe Pinna), when batched in an aquarium, usually keep together in a ball 
or cluster, like a swarm of gnats, a habit which is doubtless shared by many of tbe 
prawns, but they never seek protection from tbe mother, who lives in tbe mantle 
chamber of the mollusk. Young lobsters which are hatched and kept in the aquarium 
swarm up to the surface or go to the bottom of the jar when closely confined, but if 
given greater liberty they tend to scatter. A swarming or gregarious habit would be 
fatal to this species, on account of its inborn pugnacity and cannibalism. 
