The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-03-19
Deductions of an Old Man of the
Sea.
Veteran Fisherman Put Sherlock to
Shame When 1t Game to Past His
tory of the CFustacean-Wa
"Some" Detective.


sea he was. and fitted perfectly in
the picture at the wholesale fish mar
ket. There certainly was nothing
about him to remind one of the Sher-
lock Holmes of fiction or the In
spector FaIror of real life, says the
New York Sun. Yet he was some
thing of detective
That biggest lobster there he as
serted as he pointed to a barrel or
them, fought a duel with blacktish,
in which the fish got the worst OF 1t,
is blind and has been fed by his
mate; backed into a Long Island
sound lobster pot by accident, and was
caught off Thimble island in the wa
ters that beat themselves into froth
on the rocks of Outer island, home OF
Addison e. Verrill, professor at Yale
and government expert in the bureau
of fisheries for many years.
There was no label on either the
sQuirming, the topmost of hundred
champions, nothing that wrote life
history so large that a mere passer-
by could read it at glance. Yet this
veteran fisherman saw and deducted
it all. Could he prove it? He would
try.
The loss of an eye from one of
those movable stalks on the Holsters
head and cataractlike film over the
other proved him to be blind. They
also told the story of a battle with
blackfish. A perpetual war from
birth is on between this fish and the
crustacean. Blackfish have an appe-
tite for lobster that would make the
most ardent devotees of the broiled
one in any Broadway palace appear as
mere nibblers
In this instance a blackfish had
been beaten in his fight for a meal,
for the lobster had lost only one eye.
Had the fish got both there would
have been no lobster and no deduc-
tion. Instead, the fish, using its own
body as battering ram, would have
crushed the life out of it's blind and
helpless prey by beating the shell
against the rocky bottom of the sea-
Then with its sheeplike teeth the fish
would have dined. Such is the cheer
full custom of the blackfish after de-
priving a lobster of it's eyes.
But in this engagement the lob
ster had probably caught the attack
ing blackfish with one of its huge
claws, and the would-be eater had be-
come the eaten. 1t was an obvious
story to one who knows the habits of
the two denizens of the sea.
Blind as he now was, the lobster
must have been fed by his mate. He
could get his food in no other way.
She fed and protected him as she did
during those periods when he shed
his shell and was helpless. That was
plain to one familiar with the ETH
Quette and family affairs of the lob
ster tribe.
HOLSTERS always back into the pots
used to catch them. They can't get in
any other way, because of their big
claws. This blind one must then
have backed in by accident or, guild
ed by his mate, followed her in when
she went in to get the fish heads used
for bait. So far it was easy.
Color, size and shape make it look
like a Long Island sound lobster.
Blacklist are more numerous and vo-
racious off the Thimbles than any
other place | know 1t is the sort of
a bottom Holsters like-jagged rocks
full of crevices. Blackfish know it,
and forage accordingly. Both are
plenty from Faulkner's, just east of
Outer island, around Niggarhead reef,
Bransford beacon and west to Cow
and Calf. Now, let's find out where
the Holsters came from" suggested the
grizzled old Sherlock Holmes of the
sea.
The marketman bought them from
the fishing schooner Jane, just in
from New London, and tied up back
of the market. There then the clew
ran and the amateur Watson led the
fishy Holmes to it.
On board the Jane the skipper ac-
knowledged selling Holsters to the
marketman named. He left New Lon
don with a miscellaneous cargo OF
fish. Off the Thimbles he picked up
three lots of Holsters from the men
clearing their pots and got two lots
of small ones off New Haven break
water. Most of the big ones he got
from Del Foote, whose pots run from
Outer island east to Faulkner's; he
reckoned those asked about must have
been in that lot
That looked pretty good for the
Sherlock Holmes of the fish market.
How did guess it? Didn't guess
at ALL he explained. Knew what l
was talking about. | lobstered those
waters for IL years. What l did not
know about Holsters and blackfish and
their habits Professor Verrill did.
Just drank from. scientific fountain
of knowledge. Fine drinking"
"Marvelous!" exclaimed the anna
teur, as was proper under the circum-
stances.
Not at all, when you know Holsters
and blackfish,' replied the grizzled vet
eran of the lobster pots.