The Republican journal., 1900-10-18
ARour THE LOBSTER.

i Interesting Information from UOVerh'
| ment Report.
A recent report of the United States
Fish Commission on the lobster fishery
of Maine shows that the poet who wrote
.sTill, like lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn
made a simile almost as imperfect as
his rhyme. By no means all Holsters
are black originally or red only after
boiling. A female lobster caught Oft
Hurricane island in 1874 was colored a
rich indigo along the middle OF the
upper part of the body, shading off
into a brighter and clearer tint on the
sides and extremities. The upper sur
face of the large claws was blue and
purple. family notified with darker
Shades. while underneath was a delicate
cream tint. The under parts of the
body tended also to melt into a cream
| color. and this was also true of the
spines and tubercles of the shell and
appendages. In 1892 a Peaks Island
| fisherman caught 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 alcohol; it was
caught in 1887.
A lobster about 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. 4 lobster was caught
near Lone Island in Casco Bay, about
the year 1886, of which half the body
was light yellow up 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. T. Carver
of Vinalhaven had in his possession a
female lobster about eleven inches long,
of 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
Penobscot Bay, southeast of Moose
Point. 1t had tried to back into the
trap, but after getting its tail through
the funnel was unable to get out either
in or out and was thus captured. Ac-
cording to F. w. Collins, a dealer of
Rockland, in August, 1891, lobster
weighing Is 1-2 pounds was taken at
Blue Hill Falls, in upper Blue Hill Bay,
while in November, 1892, female
lobster weighing eighteen pounds was
taken at Green Island. In January,
1898, n. F. Trefethen of Portland re-
ceived lobster from Vinalhaven which
weighed eighteen pounds.
According to r. F. Crie & Sons of
Criehaven, on Sept. I, 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-five inches across, including
the claws, was caught on a hake trawl
off Matinicus Rock Light Station. In
August, 1899, live male lobster was
exhibited at Peaks Island which meas
ured 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 i'll a small car, which he
had built for it. and charging a fee to
look at it.
The same report gives us an interest
ing account of the mode of shipping
lobsters to market. AS they cannot be
preserved in a frozen state they must
be shipped either alive or boiled
About nine -tenths of the Holsters
caught in Maine waters are shipped in
a live state. The principal shipping sta
tionS are Portland Rockland and East
port, which have good railroad and
steamship facilities to points outside of
the State
AS soon as a smack arrives it is
moored directly alongside one of the
cars The Holsters are then dipped out
OF the well by means of long handled
scoop-net and thrown on the deck of
the vessel. The doors of the car are
opened, and men on the vessel pick
over the Holsters lying on the deck and
toss them two by two into the different
compartments, those dead and badly
mutllated being thrown to one side for
the time being. All vigorous Holsters
above certain size are placed in com
partments of the car by themselves
while the weak and small ones are put
into separate compartments. The dead
Holsters, or those which have had their
shells broken or have been so injured
that they are sure to die, are either
thrown overheard or upon the dump.
y lobster which has lost one or even
both claws is not thrown away, as such
an injury would have very little effect
upon it's health.
When an order is received for live
lobsters those which have been longest
in the cars are usually shipped. Flour
barrels, holding about 140 pounds, or
sugar barrels, holding about ls5 pounds,
with small holes bored in the bottoms
for drainage, are used for the shipment.
Formerly the Holsters were packed close
together in the barrel, and large piece
of ice was put in at the top, but this
was found to kill a number of them.
The present method is to split off about
one third of a ne-hundred-pou cake
of 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 the ice. In hand
ling them, the packer seizes the lobster
by the carapace with his right hand,
bends the tail up under the body with
his left hand and quickly deposits it in
the barrel
The packer usually has his right
hand covered with a woolen NIT or
wrapped in a long piece of linen, for
protection from the claws of the lobster.
When the barrel is nearly full the