Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-04-30
LOBsTERS AND CRABS.
FACTS OF INTEREST ABOUT
THESE cRUsTAcEANs.

A Great Lobster Of Antediluvian
Times-The Artificial Propagation
of Lobsters-Curious Points About
Crabs.
''Once upon time" said an expert in
matters crustacean, there were crabs
and Holsters in existence for which the
modern fisherman would have gone
ahunting with the most approved weap-
ons and caution. For example, in times
antediluvian there was a lobster which.
had body eight feet long and could
ctretch twelve feet with its formidable
arms. Positive knowledge of this giant
OF long ago is conveyed by geological
research. 1t must have contained meat
enough TO make a salad for regiment
of soldiers. In those days of long ago
everything grew TO enormous dimen-
sions, whether animal or vegetable.
Frogs were big and active enough to.
leap ut one hop from the Treasury build
ing to the Capitol, and other creatures,
particularly those o. q destructive sort,
were in proportion.
''0nly few little specimens are left
to illustrate the giant crustacean forms
of that ancient epoch. It's known how
crabs and Holsters are hatched from
eggs, resembling upon birth nothing So
much rs the animalcule shown by the
microscope IN a drop of ditch water
They are as unlike the shellfsh they are
10 become in mature life as II grub is I'M
like a butterfly. In the case OF the crab
the egg clusters are attached beneath
the animal after extrusion, while with
the lobster they become fastened TO the
tuil, which, by its- fan ming motion, i'm
creases the stream of oxygenated air
through and among the ova.
From the eggs of the lobster are
Matched creatures not in the least resem-
bling their parents-little fellows that
swim with feather like locomotive organs
near the surface of the water. At the
end of six weeks they develop legs, I'M
less, rs is highly probable, they have
previously been devourcd by fishes or
other enemies, becoming thereupon
small Holsters of familiar shape. Having
reached this stage of growth, the young
Holsters become walking animals. and,
sinking TO the bottom, Immediately seek
hiding places to protect them from their
foes
The first experiments in the adaptation
of knowledge on this subject to the arti-
fetal propagation of Holsters were made
simply in glass jars with sea water that
was changed daily. Even Under these
primitive conditions the newly hatched
Try thrived and grew to be OF some size
and healthy. Any one who desires TO
rear HOLSTERS by hand can accomplish the
purpose most quickly by keeping the
spawn bearing females in suitable ponds
or tanks until the young come out. In
raising the animals on large scale, how
ever, it would be best to separate the
eggs from the lobster and spread them
upon trays, allowing the water TO perco-
late among them, as is done with salmon
eggs. BY this method much trouble
would be avoided, as well as the expense
of feeding the adult hen Holsters.
There is no reason apparent wherefore
the same success should not be obtained
with Holsters as has been achieved With
salmon, which have been made TO swarm
Cnce more by myriads in streams depop-
ulated by imprudent fishing. Already
the Holsters on the North Atlantic coast
are rapidly vanishing and, unless meas
ures are soon taken for supplying their
place by artificial propagation, there will
be none left. Apparently, however, IT.
will be entirely practicable to turn out
upon the depleted grounds many millions
OF young Holsters yearly as sool as pro-
per plants for this objec. have been es-
tablIshed. One thing in favor of lobster
raising, as to cheapness, is that they
prefer food that is partially decomposcd,
and the waste food OF the towns, now
thrown away, might be most uscfully
employed by the lobster ha:cheries-
Stale fish is esteemed by Holsters an
especial delicacy.
For the purpose of lobster farm
rocky ground should be chosen, because
that is their natural haunt and there they
find suitable places TO hide. lnasmuch
as they do not walk abroad very much,
but are addicted rather TO adopt home
and keep it, except when making excur-
sions in search of food. the water farmer
who sows the pasture lands Of the sea With
crop of Holsters may reasonably hope in
time to reap the result of his labors-
There are no Holsters on the Pacific coast,
and the efforts so far rlade to carry them
across the continent for transplantation
have failed chiefly because the creatures.
have died on the way.
There are many curious points about
crabs and Holsters. Every one OF either
genus is provided with big claw for
crushing and a small claw adapted by
its shape for cutting as scissors do. With
these two claws they tear the food they
capture into fragments and feed them
selves literally from hand to mouth
But there is every reason to suppose that
the claws are intended quite as much for
fighting as for eating purposes, inasmuch
as such powerful hands ARE not needed
for devouring the soft food they prefer.
Crabs particularly are fighting animals;
in fact, they will fight anything. Il have
seen crab, in conflict with lobster,
catch the latter over the fore part of the
head, where the shell is hardest, and
caush it in by one effort. And it rather
bears out my idea that the claws of these.
creatures are particularly weapons Oh
war; that the moment one Of them re-
ceivcs severe injury in a claw it drops it.
off by voluntary amputation, severing
its connection with the body at the
shoulder cot of its-- n-,uill Ii
seems to me probable that If the claw
was necessary for feeding nature would
rather seek TO cure an injury TO 1t than
let the animal discard it altogether.
1.-The species of crab which is most
conspicuously fighter is the hermit
crab. Its rirst idea of independent life
is to eat a harmless whclk and occupy
its shell, its next notion is TO give battle
to every crab of the same persuasion as
itself that 1t comes across. Altogether
hermit crabs are undoubtedly the most