1880 .] 
87 
[Hyatt. 
ster was placed in our live tank. This live tank had, unfortunately, 
but two openings leading into the outer water, and though these 
were three inch and a half pipes, they were not sufficient to keep 
up a current in the tank while lying still in the harbor, and the 
effort to keep him alive until he had acquired a completely new 
shell, failed. The color of the skin was much deeper than when 
covered by the shell, consisting on the more prominent parts, 
of brilliant reds and other parts of dark reddish browns, the 
texture being of velvety smoothness. The shell, which was 
presented to the Society by Mr. Condon, was immediately placed 
in the position in which it was when being cast off, and I have 
it here on the table, and beside it is the lobster in alchohol. 
At 8 p. m., July 21st, the animal was examined by Mr. Gardi- 
ner very carefully in the tank, this being large enough to permit 
him to get down into it and feel the skin over carefully in all 
parts. No change, all the spines perfectly soft. Watched lobster 
at the same time myself and found him perfectly helpless, but 
able to move the tail sufficiently to oar himself slowly backwards. 
July 22d at 8 a. m., Mr. Gardiner again descended into the cold 
water and examined our prize, and reported a change, the shell 
felt papery. On taking him out and giving him a thorough exam- 
ination at 10 a. m., found' that calcification had progressed con- 
siderably during the night, though there had been no perceptible 
change since 8 a. m. The large claws had swelled considerably 
and had assumed the usual watery transparent aspect. ' The 
mandibles were the hardest part of the skin, but though it 
required a little force to put the finger into the mouth, a hardly 
perceptible pressure was all they could do in the way of a bite. 
The maxillipeds were sufficiently stiff to be readily moved and 
pushed slightly against my finger. The walking legs were the 
hardest, especially the tips of these. The joints of these were 
quite firm, tind though all other parts except the extreme tips 
were very soft, this enabled the lobster to crawl slowly over the 
bottom. The rostrum was in the same condition as were all the 
other parts, the spinous points being all case hard, but the bases of 
the same very soft. The eyes were soft and gave way under the 
touch. They appeared to be blind as compared with the eye at 
other times,, and were retracted only when touched, though we 
