The common English lobster, as seen in the fishmonger’s shop, is very unlike his relatives beneath the waves. “The curled‐up form,” says Major Lord, “in which he is seen when so exposed is not that usually assumed in his own element, except in the act of exerting its immense powers of retrograde motion. These are so great that one sudden downward sweep of its curiously‐constructed oar‐like tail is sufficient to send it like an arrow, three or four and twenty feet, with the most extraordinary precision, thereby enabling our friend to retreat with the greatest rapidity into nooks, corners, and crevices among the rocks, where pursuit would be hopeless. His eyes being arranged on foot‐stalks, or stems, are free from the inconvenient trammels of sockets, and possess a radius of vision commanding both front and rear, and from their compound form (being made up of a number of square lenses) are extremely penetrating and powerful. The slightest shadow passing over the pool in which the lobster may chance to be crawling or swimming will frequently cause one of these backward shoots to be made, and the lobster vanishes into some cleft or cavity with a rapidity of motion which no harlequin could ever, in his wildest dreams, hope to achieve. Down among the deep channels, between the crags at the sea’s bottom, alarms, except from the sea‐robbers themselves, are not to be dreaded. Here the lobsters are at home, and in such spots the wicker trap, or the trunk net, may be laid down for them: nets of this kind are in general use. They are made by fastening a number of stout wooden hoops to longitudinal bars, and covering them with network. Their internal construction is much like that of the crab‐pot, only there are two entrances instead of one, and twine is used instead of willows or twigs to prevent the prisoners from escaping. Heavy stones are attached to them as sinkers. Fish offal is used as bait, and corks at the end of lines serve to point out their position and haul them up by. Lobsters are prolific creatures, and it is well that they are so, considering the enormous quantities consumed every day in England alone.