Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-08-13


Observation-Disclosures Before YOU is
glass jar filled with running water.
Loosely filling 1t about half way up are
large number of eggs nearly round in
shape and about one-sixteenth of an
Inch in diameter, ever trying to rest
IN the bottom, but boiling and bubbling
up with the force Of the incoming cur
rent below and dancing in it like the
corn on the stove. Once in awhile one
Of the expanding shells falls off its
owners back, and before Mr. Lobster
knows 1t, whisk! Off he goes up and
away with the current through a long
Nlube into a bigger receiving jar as
risky as young colt.
Uncle Sam takes a good deal Of pains
with his lobster crop. It's one of the
most important known to the coast
fishermen, and the government doesn't
Intend that either the catcher or the
eater Of Holsters shall starve by reason
Of its extinction.
The lobster leads nomadic life,
migrating more or less from warmer
waters to colder and from shallow to
deep, according to the season. He can
dispense with claw, though unwill-
lngly, and grow another in its stead.
He Is fond Of fresh lobster himself,
as we'll as Of fish and clans, and eats
his food bones and all, the bony part
furnishing him with material for his
shell. The lobster is very particular
to get himself a new shell when his old
one has become a last years style. The
shell cracks, warps, curls up, and
Sloughs off, materially aided by the con-
tortions Of the lobster himself. Then
he energies in a thin, new suit, which
gradually hardens until 1t is in turn
ready to be cast off.
The fish commission is in league with
the lobster against his enemies, and
these are men, other Holsters, parasites,
disease, and fish-eating things gener-
ally. Hence the artificial Matching
process.
The female Holsters for the commits
sion are caught in the ordinary way
in traps or lobster pots-baited boxes
or baskets, anchored to the bottom of
the lobster beds with stones and pulled
up at intervals for inspection. The
law in all the states forbids the taking
of female Holsters with eggs, or of any
lobster under ten or eight inches long.
But for the purpose of scientific prop
agation an exception is cheerfully
made.
The she lobster is so proud of her
eggs that she CLUES them on the outside |
of her body. Hence she is called at |
such times "berried hen" lobster. |
Formerly, before the passage of repres-
Bive laws, these egg-decorated Holsters
were as great delicacy as roe shad,
and the eggs were used in making
sauces for salads. The United States
was much quicker than the European
nations to recognize the danger Of de-
the "berried" lobster and to
protect them by law.
Fish cultural sharps talk lightly Of
millions of eggs, and no wonder. One
average ten-inch lobster will yield TO-
900 eggs, an average undetermined one
about $4,000. In the matches these are
stripped from the Holsters and put into
Matching jars, which are
30 arranged that a constant current of
pure sea water is forced in at the bot
tom and passes off at the top. The
eggs are heavier than sea water and
hence sink to the bottom, where the
incoming stream of water keeps them
1obbing about. When the lobster lar
vac hatch out their shells sink, but
hey being lighter float off through the
discharge pipe and are set free. The
is almost all completed in
Tune of each year, though sometimes
t continues during early July. The fe-
male lobster breeds only once in two
years.