Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1897-10-06
rolLEr OF rHE LonsrER.


Takes On a New One
1t has not happened to every one to
see a lobster cast his shell. Last sum
mer had an opportunity of watching
the process, says a writer in Fireside.
l was staying for several weeks in
secluded little village on the south
coast and one day, when the only fish
erman in the place returned after taxi
ing up his pots" he flung on the beach
a specimen too small for sale or home
consumption. The prize was taken pos
session of by boy, who presented it
to my improvised aquarium, for which
all the little boys of the village were
enthusiastic collectors. | kept the wa
ter well aerated and devoted a great
deal of time and attention to my vari-
GUS live stock; and at last my reward
came At the time of his capture my
lobster had already begun to think
about getting a new suit, and as the
days went by the old shell became so
small for him that he could no longer
avoid discarding his ever-tlghtening ar
NOR. One morning, therefore, | found
my lobster apparently in his last agon-
les. He lay on his back and rubbed his
legs convulsively together as if in in
tense pain and then he wriggled about
or jerked himself violently upward by
means of his tail. / suppose that these
actions had for their object the loosen
ing of the claws and limbs in their
sheaths, The rapid movements some
what disturbed the sand and clouded
the water, but as the patient lay close
to the glass | never entirely lost sight
of him. Nevertheless, l do not quite
know how it all occurred. The throes
continued for an hour or more and eff
forts were apparently made to burst the
shell open from within, but it was not
until l saw the lobster had actually
Invested himself of his head covering
that | understood what my guest was
about. A great deal more wriggling
and struggling followed, the lobster
gradually squeezing himself as it were
out of the shoulders of his suit of ar
NOR.
The operation looked as if it were
extremely painful and exhausting, but
at last / had the satisfaction of seeing
my lobster and his discarded shell side
by side. The latter looked very much
the smaller of the two and, save that 1t
was motionless, it might have been mis-
taken for live and healthy crustacean
in full dress. The orifice through
which the ancient tenant had evicted
himself was very small and the head
piece had not been completely thrown
off, but was left hanging as if by a
hinge. But now the naked lobster did
not look at all like his old self. His
colors were so bright as to suggest that
he had peen parboiled and he had the
tender appearance of human flesh from
which the skin has just been removed.
| took out the shell and found that my
guest had got rid not only of the major
part of his eyes, but also of the lining
of his stomach, including his internal
teeth and of some of the bones of his
thorax, yet he seemed to be little the
worse for his thorough turnout. On
my return from luncheon touched him
and found out that, although quite soft,
he was covered with an incipient shell
of the approximate solidity of oiled
tissue paper.
have omitted to mention one curious
circumstance connected with this par
ticular animals toilet. When the lob
ster was given to me he was without his
left big claw, which had, ] suppose,
been accidentally wrenched off by his
original captor. The stump very quick
ly healed up, a hard, calcareous seal en-
crusting the end Of the joint. To my
establishment, when the lobster worked
himself out of his shell, he appeared
with a rudimentary left claw. which
had evidently formed behind the shield,
This claw grew even more rapidly than
the rest of the body.