The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-08-08
QUEER 0oWN-EAsT LoesTERs,

A Run of Yellow and Polka-Dot FreakA
Following the Succession of Blues
About five years ago a New London
fisherman, visiting one of the big siaf-
framed lobster pots with which the bot
tom of Fishers Island sound is uneven
" paved, took therefrom a baby lobster
as blue as the unclouded summer FIR
mament. Tt was blue from the ends of
its waving f~eelerst to the tips of its brittle
and seemingly translucent claws, and
the tint was indescribably deep, deli
cate, and vivid. 1t was a picture In col
ors. that lobster was, of the ocean in It's
VARYING moods. The color of its back
was SO dark and dull that to a careless
eve it seemed to be black, the hue or the
sea before the outbreak of a Storm
thence, by imperceptible gradations,
the blush tint was clarified and bright
ened and deepened along the Holsters
sides and claws, SO that the tips OF the
legs and the feelers were Of a color as
tender, vivid and clear as that OF q
wood flower, or ol~d-fashioned china,
or the sky on June day.
In fact, it was so fragile looking thai
he fisherman half fancied it might be
n china and not a shell lobster at all,
and he brought it home into port as
carefully as if he was tending a moth
erless kitten, and showed it to all the
grizzled mariners a~longshore, none OF
whom had ever seen a blue lobster be-
fore. 1t was a nine days wonder in
one of the markets in town, but the
blue lobster did not live SO long, for
n dav or two after it was taken IL went
into somebody's pot, and somebody ate
" - 1NUyn uQar "a Inter n
second blue lobster was taken of the
mouth of New London harbor, later
still a third one, all being chicken lob
sters and as delicately and beautifuily
tinted as the first conner of the singular
family. About a year ago Capt. sam
Comstock, marketman OF Norwich, nft-
ing his pots in the sound, midway De
tween the Connecticut mainland and
Fishers island, took from one a fourth
blue fellow, a chicken, too; and In his
market stall at Norwich he showed II
to all the curious people Of the town
for three days. Then he boiled 1t II
his huge lobster kettle, and 1t turned
red in the pot like any plebeian and or
binary lobster.
Meantime the Sun had printed severa
: stories about the blue Holsters of Fish
er's Island sound, aud Maine off-shor'
, fishermen promptly reported that the!
. too in the past five years had beel
l catching blue Holsters just like the sin
: cularly colored chickens from the Nut
I meg and New York state waters. Be
0 fore the beginning of that period, the.
r said, the most experienced veteran o
= Pine Tree state fishermen had neve
e seen nor heard of a freak Of the kind
: Then the run of blues seemed to enc
y That fact by no menas implies that tn
=; ingenuity of the lobster tribe In Tn
II wav of turning out freaks has been Ell
;. hausted. Not at all, for exhibit NO.
- in the line of lobster freaks has jus
come to hand in this saltwater staine
old harbor town. 1t wa a yellow LOT
ster, about as yellow as old gold or
maripold, or an October pumpkin
. n New England cornfield. Every on
"A VIII saw it said at once that, althoug
Il not SO delicately and etherealiy beaut
:, full. it was more freakish that any on
Is of the celebrated blue famil.
Like the blues, also, 1t We
taken in these down east water
Y not many miles outside of New ono
ID harbor. The shell was of a bright O
n, ange color, legs, claws and all, and WI
S. evenly spotted over its entire surfa'
re with jet black. The combination WI
i'd at once startling and handsome, al
the lobster attracted much attentio
lie on account of it's beauty. Lobster mt
OF saw that it was the first of the kir
s, they have ever seen.
We Yet a more singular and picturesqu
es ly bizarre, if less artistically ant
re- freak lobster turned up, coming fro
ur the same down east waters, just abo'
k a week ago. 1t was a piebald cha
ur with small polka dots all about !
i'll back and legs and claws, so that a Ne
lg London expert graphically described
as u leopard lobster" saying that u
TO- doubtedly, it is an albino, like the bi
ny and orange Holsters, corresponding
ep albinos met with now and then
land, white crows, blackbirds, SOU
en- rels and SO on.-N. Y. Sun.