Chapter V.— URGE LOBSTERS. 
THE GREATEST SIZE ATTAINED BY THE LOBSTER. 
Stories of gigantic lobsters made tlieir appearance at a very early period, and 
one could probably gather as many exaggerated accounts of this animal now as in 
the days of Glaus Magnus. Time, however, has narrowed the bounds of credulity, 
even among the ignorant, and we no longer hear some of the interesting legends 
which the old writers have carefully handed down. Thus Glaus Magnus tells us in 
his description of northern lands and seas, 1 published in 1555, that between the 
Orkneys and Hebrides there lived lobsters so huge that they could catch a strong 
swimmer and squeeze him to death in their claws. His curious figures are copied 
by Gesner (75), who has many others equal to any which are described in the old 
mythologies. 
Giants are met with in all the higher groups of animals. They interest us not 
only on account of their actual size, but also m showing to what degree individuals 
may surpass the mean average of the race. It may be a question whether lobsters 
which weigh from 20 to 25 pounds are to be regarded as giants in the technical sense, 
or simply as sound and vigorous individuals on whose side fortune has always fought 
in the struggle for life. I am inclined to the latter view, and to look upon the mam- 
moth lobster simply as a favorite of nature, who is larger than his fellows because he 
is their senior; good luck has never deserted him until at last he is stranded on the 
beach or becomes entangled in some fisherman’s gear. 
Gesner gives a very poor figure of a lobster, but a very good drawing of the large 
crushing-claw of oue which he had preserved in his collection on account of its great 
size. The length of this claw is 8$ inches, and its breadth at the junction of the 
dactyl about 4 inches, so that it must have belonged to a lobster which weighed not 
far from 8 pounds. 
Pontoppidans {152) relates a fable, which is repeated by Herbst {88) and others, of 
the Storjer, or lobsters of huge size which fishermen reported having seen in Utvaer 
in the Bay of Erieu, Norway. One of these was so large and terrible that no one dared 
to attack it, and it measured, between its claws at least a fathom. This, says Herbst, 
probably belongs with the Kracken, the natural products of Norwegian superstition. 
Boeck says that he had seen the claw 2 of a lobster which must have been about 
18 inches long, and Sir John Graham Dalyell {50), according to Boeck, tells us, in The 
Powers of the Creator, published in 1827, that he had seen a joint of the left claw of 
a lobster which measured 9 inches in length. It does not follow, however, as Boeck 
infers, that “the whole claw 2 must have measured 18 to 24 iuches, and the whole 
animal 3 to 4 feet.” 
The European lobster of to-day seldom attains so great size as the American 
species, and its average weight is considerably less. Buckland {28) gives the following 
account of large lobsters from the British Islands: 
The Skye and Orkney lobsters are probably the largest in the British Islands. At St. Mawes we 
heard of two lobsters, oue 10 pounds and the other 9| pounds; and at Durgan and Sennen of one of 
13 pounds. A large lobster was caught in a large earthenware pot at Gosport in 1870 which weighed 
1 Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Rome, 1555. 
2 The word claw is here inaccurately used to mean the entire claw-bearing limb (cheliped). 
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