The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-09

surplus catch could be kept alive until
such time as the market needed them.
The first one of these pounds was made
In 1875 near Vlnal Haven, on one of the
Fox Islands. A section Of about nine
acres in a fiye-hundred acre cove with
an average deuth of about ninety feet
was selected, and a wire fence was
built around 1t to prevent the Holsters
from escaming. The experiment was
so successful that in 1898 eight more
pounds had been built along the Maine
coast
The business of canning lobster no
longer exists in Maine. 1t began in
1870 at PASSPORT and for many years
consumed a large part of the annual
catch. At the time the facilities for
getting the Holsters to market alive
were bad, and this naturally led to
their use In the factories. SO great was
the consumption of Holsters by the fac
tories that the supply was badly deple-
ted, and o sentiment grew up In the
state against permitting the factories
to run. Laws We're enacted permitting
their operation for only a few months
in the year, and prohibiting the cam
ming of any lobster less than nine inch
es In length, From time to time these
laws were changed, always becoming
more stringent until in 1895 a law was
passed forbidding the use of any lobs-
ter less than ten and one-half inches
long. AS the eanneries could not afford
to pay the high price demanded for this
size they We're compelled to give up the
business.
The result of this has been that spec
ial efforts have been made to devise
methods of packing the Holsters in or
der that they might be shipped to dis
tant points alive. They are usually
shipped now in barrels. About one
third of hundred-pound cake of ice is
put into the barrel lengthwise. The
live Holsters are then packed all around
1t. When the barrel is nearly full the
Holsters are covered with little sea-
weed and the rest of the space is filled
with cracked ice The top Is then COW
cred with a piece of sacking which is
secured under the upper hoop of the
barrel. Packed In this way Holsters
have easily survived a trip as far west
as st. Louis. When Holsters are sent
to Europe they are placed in large
tank of sea water on board and If the
water is kept fresh the Holsters make
the journey very well.
Lobster fishermen, like all fishermen
have most remarkable funds of stories
about wonderful catches which they
have made Stories of the capture of
Holsters weighing thirty and forty, and
even fifty pounds, have been common,
but they have rerely been well anthem
ticated A lobster eleven inches long
weighs two pounds, twelve inches long,
two and one-half pounds, and fifteen
inches long. four and one-quarter
pounds. A fifteen-inch lobster Is a
very good-sized specimen. Notwith-
standing this there are some pretty
well authenticated yarns about the
capture of Holsters of very much great
err weight.
John N. Cobb, agent of the United
States fish commission, in a pamphlet
on the subject of Holsters, gives a num-
Der of cases which he considers authen-
tic. In 1891 John Condor caught a
male lobster in Penobscot bay weigh
ing over twenty-three pounds The
lobster had tried to back into the trap,
DuL dlteF getting ms tdll through LFe
funnel he was unable to get either in or
out. Peter Mitchell, while fishing in
sixty fathoms Of water two miles off
Matinicus Rock Light station, in Sep
TENDER, 1898, caught a male lobster
twenty-five pounds and meas
uring twenty-five inches from the end
of the nose to the tip of the tail, and
forty-five inches including the claws.
In August, 1899, Mr.. Cobb saw male
lobster at Peak Island which measured
forty-four inches in length and weighed
twenty-five pounds, according to the
statement of it's owner. The owner
was carrying it from town to town in
a small car and was charging a small
fee for people to look at it.--New York
Sun.