The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-03-07
knew THE LOBSTER
Deductions Of an Old Man Of the
Sea.
Veteran Fisherman Put Sherlock to
Shame When Il Came to Past His
tory Of the Crustacean-Was
Some" Detective.

A weather beaten old man of tho
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 h Sher-
lock Holmes Of fiction or the Ia.
spector Fauror Of real life, says the
New York Sun. Yet he was some
thing Of a detective.
That biggest lobster there be as.
serted as he pointed TO a barrel on
them, fought a duel with a %blacktish,
in which the FISH got the worst Of it,
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 a froth
on the rocks of Outer island, nome o.
Addison e. Verrill, professor at Yale
and government expert in the bureau
of fisheries for many years"
There was no label on either the
lobster or the barrel In which he lay
squirming, the topmost of a hundred
champions, nothing that wrote a lifo
history so large that a nero passer'
by could read it at a glance. Yet this
veteran fisherman saw and deducted
it all. Could he prove it? He would
try.
The loss Of an eye from II OF
those movable stalks on the lobster's
head and a c~ataractlike film over tho
other proved him TO be blind. They
also told the story of a battle with
a blackish. A perpetual war from
birth is on between this fish and the
~crustacean. Blackfish have an appe
tite for lobster that would make tho
most ardent devotees of the broiled
one in any Broadway palace appear as,
mere nibblers.
In this instance a blackftsh 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 beer no lobster and no deduc-
ton. Instead, the fish, using its
body as a batteTing ram, would have
crushed the life out of it's blind aud
helpless prey by beating the shelf
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 its eyes.
But in this engagement the lot
ster had probably caught the attack
ing blackfsh with one of its hugo
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. Ho
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 wa
plain to one familiar with he ett
/, quette and family affairs of the lob
ster tribe.
Holsters always back into the pots
used to catch them. They cant 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.
NOlOls blAC All budpC mdht II lbbh
like a Long Island sound lobster.
Blacklist are more numerous and 70
racious off the Thimbles than any
/ other place l know. 1t is the sort OF
a bottom Holsters like-iagged rocks
t full of crevices. Blacktish know Ii,
and forage accordingly. Both are
. plenty from ~Faulkner's, just east OF
Outer island, around Niggarhead reef,
| Bransford beacon and west to Cow
l 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 Chew
ran and the amateur Watson led the
r fishy Holmes to it.
" On board the Jane the skipper &C
D knowledged selling HOLSTERS to the
+ marketman named, He left New Lon.
i don with a miscellaneous cargo OF
fish. OF 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 lei he goi
from Del Foote. whose pots run from
Outer island east 10 F%aulkner's; nc
reckoned those asked about must have
a been in that lot,
That looked pretty good for the
: Sherlock Holmes Of the fish market
How did ! guess it? Didn't guess
1 at all" he explained. Knew what
was talking about, ] lobstered those
n waters for u years. What ! did moi
know about Holsters and blacldish anC
their habits Professor Verrill did.
e Just drank from a scientific fountain
S of knowledge. Fine drinking.
Marvellous exclaimed the anna
teur, as was proper under the oircum
stances.
Not at all, when you know lobster.
and blacklist, replied the grizzled vet
S eran of the lobster pots,
pnnhahtu