Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-11-07
HOLSTERS THAT WERE GIANTS.
Some Crustacean Giants of Years Ago-Youn
HOLSTERS and Their vagabond Wars.

Some Crustacean Giants of Years Ago-Young
HOLSTERS and Their vagabond Ways.
Zone rarely hears of good-sized lobster
nowadays" said an ichthyologist to . stan
writer. ''Yet it was not SO many years ago that
twenty-five Founders were quite frequently
caught. There is one preserved in the collec-
ton of crustacea at the Smithsonian Institu-
ton which weighed eighteen pounds at the
time Of its capture. Reliable record exists Of
specimens weighing forty pounds. One Of that
magnitude would be five feet in length, includ.
ing the claws
"Lobsters often travel in regiments, seeking
new feeding grounds. Their migrating armies
are always led by the biggest and strongest
ones, while the MANNED and weakly strug-
gle along behind. A fair-sized female lobster
carries $4,000 eggs at a time. The eggs when
extruded are covered with q viscid matter,
which, drawn out into threads. attaches them
to the long hairs that fringe the fan-liks tail
of the mother. These threads quickly become
hard and strong, the eggs waving about in the
water and being thus aerated. When they are
ready to be Matched, the mother lobster oscil-
lates her tail so as to assist the offspring to es-
cape. The young at first resemble shrimps,
being about One-third of an inch in length.
They have bright blue eyes. After a few days
they desert the mother and swim out into deep
water, where they rise to the surface and lead
vagabond sort Of existence for thirty or forty
days
CHANGING THEIR SHELLS.
During this time the young ones change
their shells four times. On the fourth &C.
casion they shed their swimming organs and
fall to the bottom, where they remain for the
rest OF their lives. During their existence as
swimmers most of them are gobbled up BY
hshes, for which they afford favorite food.
On the other hand, there is nothing which
Holsters, when grown, are 30 fond of as fresh
fish. Founders and other bottom fishes fire.
quently fall a prey TO their appetite. and some-
times they will nimbly capture small minnows
as the latter 60 swimming by. They dig CLANS
out of the mud or sand and crush the shells of
mussels with their claws, dsvouring the soft
parts.
young Holsters are called in the neiehbor-
hood OF Nantucket grasshoppers.' In the
swimming stage of their being they can often
be dipped up in quantities from the surface of
the sea On calm days. When it is stormy they
descend. 1t is the very exceptional specimen
that lives to grow up. HOLSTERS are exposed to
many perils If they are SO fortunate as to
survive infancy they must 60 through numerous
periods of danger incident to the shedding
process. Now and then in the course of its
growth the lobster finds that it must swell or
bust, and SO it proceeds to divest itself Of its
suit OF armor. The process is a long and dan
gerous one. Not only the outer shell 10 taken
of. but even some of the inward parts of the
animal, as the stomach bag, are removed II
Is sick for some timo afterward and fisher
men consider it not fit to eat. though Just be-
fore the shedding the creature is most es-
teemed for table purposes, because it is fullest
OF meat.
SHOOTING THEIR CLAWS.
HOLSTERS, like crabs, have a way Of shoot
ing their claws, as the operation is termed.
Slight provocation will persuade them to drop
their arms and run away without them. It is
said that loud noise or a clap of thunder will
produce this effect. An instance is recorded
OF an amateur fisherman who caught lot Of
Holsters and, in order to keep them fresh, tied
them by their claws and hung them by strings
over the side of "a vessel. In the morning only
the claws remained attached to the cords the
Holsters having dispensed with them and dis
appeared. Lobster meet is Just about six-tenths
as nutritious as beef. 1t contains q remarka-
bly, large percentage Of phosphorus. There is
no way in whicE that element, supposed to be
so important for nourishing the brain, can be
so readily assimilated as in the shape Of lob