The Portland daily press., 1900-10-05
ABOUT THE LOBSTER.
Interesting information from a
Government Report.
A Portland Man Has a Pure White
Lobster.
Boston
D Correspondence
Transcript.

ssTiI. like lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn"
made a smile almost as imperfect as his
rhyme. BY no means all Holsters are
black originally or red only after boiling.
A female lobster caught off Hurricane
island in 1874 was colored a rich indigo
along the middle of the upper part OF the
body, shading OF into brighter and
clearer tint on the sides and extremities.
rrbe upper surface of the large claws was
blue and purple, family notified with
darker shades, while underneath was
delicate cream tint. The under parts OF
the body tended also to melt into cream
color, and this was also true Of the spines
and tubercles of the she'll and appendages
In 1892 a Peaks Island fisherman caught
a lobster about eleven inches in length,
whose back was of an indigo blue, and
which towards the extremities and under
parts was shaded off into pure white.
The under part Of the claw was also
pure white. Lewis Mcdonald of Portland
has pure white lobster preserved in alco-
hoI; it was caught In 1887.
A lobster abou t six inches long caught
at Beal Island was almost jet black. A
few bright-red Holsters, looking as though
they had been boiled, have also been
taken along the Maine coast at various
times. A lobster was caught near Lone
Island in CascosBay, about the year 1886,
of which half the body was light = elbow
I'D to the middle line Of the back, while
the other half was bright red; there were
no spots on the she'll. In September, 1898,
r.. Il. Carver of Vinalhaven had in his
possesson female lobster about eleven
inches long, of a bright red color all over
except the forward half of the right side
of the carapace and the feeler on this
side, which were of the usual color.
The popular notion, also, of the sizes of
Holsters, appears to fall somewhat short
of the truth. On May 6, 1891, male
lobster weighing slightly more than
tWenty-three pounds was taken in PenOb.
scot Bay, southeast OF Moose Point. 1t
had tried Ito back into the trap, but
after getting it's tail through the funnel
was unable to get either in or out and
was thus captured. According to +. w.
Collins, a dealer of RockIand, in August,
1891, lobster weighing IS 1-2 pounds
was taken at Blue Hill Falls, in upper
Blue Hill Bay, while in November, 1899,
pounds was taken at Green Island. In
January, 1898, N. E. Trefethen of Port
land received a lobster from Vinalhaven
which weighed eighteen pounds.
According to Il, B. Crie 81 Sons of
Criehaven, on Sept. z, 1898, a male lob
ster weighing twenty-five pounds and
measuring twenty-five inches from the
end of the nose to the tip of the tail, and
forty-dYe inches across, including the
claws, Was caught on hake traWl off
II
gust, 1899, live male lobster was eXhib-
tied at Peaks Island which measured
forty -four inches in length and weighed
twenty five pounds. 1t had been caught
near MOnhegan Island, and the owner
was carrying it from town to town in q
small car, which he had built for it, and
charging a fee TO look at it
The same report gives us an interesting
account of the mode of shipping Holsters
to market. AS they cannot be preserved
in q froZsn state they must be shipped
either alive or boiled, About nine -tenths
of the Holsters caught in Maine waters
ara shipped in the live state. The prin-
cipal shipping stations are Portland,
Rockland and EastpOrt, which have good
railroad and steamship facilities to points
outside Of the State
AS soon as smack arrives it is moored
dir ectiy alongside one of the cars. The
HOLSTERS are then dipped out of the well
| by means of a long-handIed sooop-net and
thrown on the deck of the vessel. The
doors of the car are opened. and men or
the vessel pick over the Holsters lying on
the deck and toss them two by two into
the different compartments, those dead
| and badly mut1lated being thrown to one
side for the time being. All vigorou.
/ Holsters above a certain Size are placed
1 In compartments OF the car by themseIve!
while the weak and small ones are put
/ into separate Commandments. Vhe dead
/ lOhSfnPG fhnao vVhiph hox hod
| shells broken or have been so injured
| that they are sure to die, are either
thrown overheard or upon the dump. A
/ lobster which has lost one or even botf
| claws is not thrown away, as such an in
/ jury would have very little effect upon itl
health,
When an order is received for live
lobster, those which have been longest IL
| the cars are usually shipped. Flour bar
rels, holding about lao pounds, or sugar
barrels, holding about 185 pounds, with
| small holes bored in the bottoms fol
drainage, are used for the shipment
| Formerly the Holsters were packed close
| together In the barrel, and a large piece
| OF Ice was put in at the top, but thii
| was found so kill a number OF them
The present method is to split of about
one-6h1rd OF q One-hundred- pound cake o.
Ice the long way, and place it upright
| about halfway OF the length of the barrel
| the Holsters then being packed snugly on
| all sides of thesice. In handling them
the packer seizes the lobster by the cara
pace with his right hand, bends the tai
up under the body with his left hand anC
| quickly deposits it in the barrel.
; The packer usually has his right hant
covered with wOolen NIT or wrapped
In long pieece of linen, for protection
from the claws of the lobster.
When the barrel is nearly full the lobster
are coVered with little seaweed OF large
Ieaved marine plants, and the rest OF the
space is filled with cracked ice. The to-
is then covered with piece OF sacking
which is secured under the upper Shoou Q
the barrel. Packed in this way, lobster
have easily survived trip as far West a
st. Louis,
Owing to the high price realized II
England for live Holsters, attempts hav
been made to ship live American lobster
30 that market, generally from CANADIAN