The silver lance., 1897-10-01
TOILET OF rvs LOBSTER.
nsw He Gets Oss Of nss 0la shsu 80
TAkes o. \ NsW One.

New He Gets Out Of mhs OLD shsn 80
Takes On New Oass
1t has not happened to every one to
see lobster cast his shell. Last sum
mer had an opportunity Of Watching
the process. says q writer in Fireoide.
l was staying for several weeks II
secluded little village on the south
coast and one day. when the only nan
erman In the place returned after TAX
Ing up his "pots," he flung on the beach
specimen too small for sale or home
consumption. The prize was taken POS
session of by q boy, who presented It
to my improvised aquarium. for which
all the little boys Of the village were
enthusiastic collectors. kept the va
ter we'll aerated and devoted . great
deal Of time and attention to ny 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 . new suit. and - the
days went by the old shell became 20
small for him that he could no longer
avoid discarding his ever-tightening 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 II 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 clcuded
the water, but as the patient lay close
to the glass l never entirely lost sight
Of him. Nevertheless, do not quite
know how it all occurred. The throes
continued for an hour or more and o.
forts were apparently made to burst the
shell open from within. but 1t was not
until l saw the lobster had actually
divested 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 1t were.
out OF the shoulders Of his suit Of ar
NOR.
The operation looked as II 1t 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 orifce through
which the ancient tenant had evicted
himself was very small and the head
piece had not been completely throwa
on, but was left hanging as II by .
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.
I 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.
Ihave 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 on BY his
original captor. The stump very quick
ly healed up, q hard, calcareous seal en-
crusting the end of the joint. To my
astonishment, 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
tho rouf of tho hOdv