112 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
claws to end of tail), the claws being 18 inches long and 8 inches across.” (155.) If 
the weight is given correctly, the measurements are certainly at fault, as I shall 
presently show. 
There can be nothing in literature more unreliable than accounts of the size and 
weights of animals, gathered at random. The first estimate is often a guess, which 
immediately acquires an air of accuracy by being expressed in figures. It does not 
usually get into print until it has been rolled over many tongues, and during the 
process it increases in size like the snowball which is rolled along the ground. But it 
undoubtedly comes hardest for a man who has a large lobster for sale to resist 
temptation. In describing a few very large lobsters I shall therefore limit myself to 
those which I have actually seen and measured or weighed. 
I will now give the history of a lobster which came into my possession in August, 
1893.' It is probably one of the largest lobsters ever taken on the Atlantic coast. 
Its history has been carefully authenticated, and I have obtained some excellent 
photographs of it, which are reproduced in plates 1 and 2. This mammoth specimen 
was captured in Penobscot Bay, southeast of Moose Point, in line with Brigadier 
Island, near Belfast, Maine, May 6, 1891, in about 3)1 fathoms of water, by Mr. John 
Condon. Its capture was accidental, since it was brought to the surface on the end 
of a lobster pot, the “tail” of the lobster resting in the funnel of the trap, while the 
huge claws hung down at the sides. The animal, attracted by the bait, had doubtless 
been making fruitless attempts to enter the trap. A dealer in fish at Belfast soon came 
into the possession of this lobster while it was still alive. The shell was then very 
dark in color, almost black on the upper surface, and supported a number of prosperous 
colonies of marine animals. The common barnacle (Balanus balanoides) was growing 
on the shell of the back and also on the upper surface of the crushing- claw, near the 
joint of the thumb or dactyl, where it may be seen in the plate. Several species 
of mollusks, particularly the common mussel ( Mytilus edulis ), were fixed to various 
parts of the shell, and hydroids (Pennaria or Eudendrium) were flourishing at the 
articulations of some of the legs. The presence of these messmates pointed to a 
rather sluggish habit of life, which the animal may have possessed. The entire 
upper surface of the shell and both the upper and lower surfaces of the claws are 
scarred, scraped, and gouged like the side of a cliff over which a glacier has passed, 
and present a graphic record of the struggle for life which this animal had so long 
and so successfully fought. 
When laid on its back the lobster could move but little, but when in its normal 
position it would crawl over the floor, and if worried with a stick it seized it savagely 
and crushed it with its claws. It was weighed on a Fairbanks scale in the presence 
of a number of people. Its living weight was found to be a little over 23 pounds. 1 2 
This lobster was finally killed by boiling in the usual way, the membranes being 
first cut at the articulations to let out the blood and admit the water. It was after- 
wards placed in a large kettle of water to which a bushel of salt was added, and was 
boiled in this brine for more than an hour. 3 After it was boiled, the meat of the 
1 This lobster is now preserved, in excellent condition, in the museum of Adelbert College, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 
2 When I first saw this lobster I was assured that the animal was not weighed until after it had 
been boiled. Allowing a shrinkage of 20 per cent in boiling, I estimated the living weight to have 
been about 28 pounds. (See 99 .) The first statement, was not true. I have since ascertained that the 
facts are as given above. 
3 Old-shell lobsters are said to shrink 20 per cent and new-shell lobsters 25 per cent in weight 
after boiling. 
