Part 25
‘Within a few years,’ he adds, ‘one establishment has been set up on Portage Island, at the mouth of the River Miramachi, and another at the mouth of the Kouchibouguac River, for putting up lobsters, in tin cases, hermetically sealed for exportation. In 1845, no less than 13,000 cases of lobsters and salmon were thus put up at Portage Island. In 1847, nearly 10,000 cases of lobsters, each case containing the choicest parts of two or three lobsters, and one-and-a-half tons of fresh salmon in 2-lb. and 4-lb. cases, were put up at Kouchibouguac. The preservation of lobsters in this manner need only be restricted by the demand, for the supply is unlimited. The price paid for lobsters, at the establishment on Portage Island, is 2_s._ per 100. They are all taken in small hoop nets, chiefly by the Acadian French of the Neguac villages, who, at the price stated, could with reasonable diligence, make £1 each in the 24 hours; but as they are somewhat idle and easily contented, they rarely exert themselves to earn more than 10_s._ per day, which they can generally obtain by eight or ten hours’ attention to their hoop nets.
‘In 1848, about 4,000 lbs. of lobsters were put up at Portage Island in 1-lb. or 2-lb. tin cases. The quantity preserved was much less than usual, owing to the prevalence of cholera in the United States, and the consequent want of a market there. One Frenchman had, unassisted, caught 1,200 lobsters in part of one day. About 25 men are employed at this preserving establishment during the season.
‘Mr. Woolner has a small but very complete establishment for preserving lobsters, at Petit Rocher, in the Bay of Chaleur. In the season of 1849, he only put up a small quantity, 2,000 lbs., in tins. He purchases from the settlers the white part of the lobsters, boiled and free from shell, at 2_d._ per lb., which is salted in plain pickle, and packed in barrels, for sale at Quebec. He shipped last year 11,000 lbs. of salted lobsters.’
Next to timber, lobsters form one of the greatest articles of Norwegian export. On the rocky shores of Christiansand, they are found in greater numbers than in any other part of the world; and from Bergen, which lies farther to the north, as many as 260,000 pairs have been exported in one year. Mr. J. E. Saunders, of Billingsgate, into whose hands almost the entire trade of these crustaceans has fallen, often sells 15,000 lobsters before breakfast of a morning; and in the height of the season, the sale not unfrequently amounts to 30,000. They are sent in great numbers from Scotland to the markets of London, Liverpool, and Birmingham--60 or 70 large boxes of them being transmitted at a time by train. Our fishermen, it is true, take them occasionally in pots round the coast, but no systematic fishery is carried on for them.
A company was recently formed at Berwick to import them alive, in welled smacks, from the coast of Norway. They are also brought into Southampton from Brittany and Ireland in welled smacks, which carry from 7,000 to 8,000 each.
‘Lobster-carrying is subject to the following contingencies:--Thunder kills them when in the well; also proximity to the discharge of heavy ordnance. Mr. Scovell lost several thousand from the latter cause, one of his smacks having anchored at night too near the saluting-battery at Plymouth. Calms also destroy the lobsters in the well, but onward or pitching motion in a seaway does not affect them. They keep alive one month in the well without food.’[35]
An artificial pond, or saltern, has been formed at Hamble, in the Southampton water, for keeping lobsters alive in. It is about 50 yards square, by 10 to 12 feet deep, with shelving sides of brick or stone and cement, and a concrete bottom, having a lock or weir at the entrance, for the admission and exit of salt water at the bottom (the Hamble being a fresh-water stream). This pond cost about £13,000. The lobsters are fed on fish, and fatten. Sometimes there are as many as 70,000 lobsters in this pond. All weak lobsters are kept in baskets and sold first. Even here, however, their cannibal-like propensities are not extinguished; for the powerful make war upon, and incorporate into their own natures, the weak. There are feeders and keepers employed at the saltern, who, with long poles, hooked at the end, drag out the fish as they are wanted for the market from their marine menagerie. The instant the pole touches a fish, the latter grasps it savagely with its claws, and does not loose its hold until it is on _terra firma_. When large quantities are required, the pond is drained. These shell-fish are enormous creatures, the body with the claws being as long as a man’s arm. As the lobsters and cray-fish climb nimbly up the sides of the watery caravan, they look like a collection of purple-coloured monkeys or stunted baboons; and there is something frightful in the appearance and noiselessness of these chatterless simiæ, climbing about their liquid den, and approaching the surface to look at the spectator. They are sent to the metropolis in hampers, packed in fern in winter and in ice in summer.
The Americans in the large cities and inland towns seem to be as fond of lobster salads and curries as we Britishers are; and it is estimated, that there are annually consumed in and about Boston, 700,000 lobsters, the prime cost of which is £16 per 1,000. This makes the snug little sum of £11,200. 500,000 of the lobsters come from the State of Maine, and the remaining 200,000 are taken from Massachusetts Bay. About 700 men are engaged in catching the lobsters, and some 800 tons of shipping in carrying them to Boston, exclusive of what are conveyed by steamboat and railroad.
Here is a poetical narrative, of American origin, bearing upon this crustacean:--
THE LOBSTER.
_Whereby hangeth a tayle, and eke a moral._
A Doctor and a Lawyer, went together merrily, Adown the North-west Arm to take a dip into the sea. Arrived, the Doctor coolly took a rather ‘heavy wet,’ A Lobster just as coolly took the Doctor by the feet. He, careful man, his health and wind most prudently had heeded, And little thought that either toe an amputation needed; He felt the Lobster on his skill most cuttingly reflected, And to his surgical attempt decidedly objected. With ready forceps, tooth and nail, the lobster set to work-- While all in vain the Doctor tried to baulk him by a jerk. ‘Midst present pain his anxious thoughts began afar to roam, On forceps, scalpels, lancets, knives, and stout probangs _at home_. But, _lacking these_, the foe to face, he felt somehow afraid, And therefore lustily he called the Lawyer to his aid. He, cunning man, well versed in quirks and quibbles of the law, Sagaciously searched how to find in Lobster’s claim a flaw. The claim of _tenure_ to rebut, at once, he vainly sought; Possession was nine points, he knew, and so the Lobster thought. He saw the lobster quite secure within his own domain, And to entice him thence began to work his ready brain. One foot the Doctor yet had free, and this, with shuffling gait, He offered to the other claw--a very tempting bait. But, gently moving back, he ’scaped the meditated nip, And shoreward still, with toe outstretched, most cannily did skip. At length from his domain withdrawn, the Lobster gasps for air, And vainly strives to battle with this wise confederate pair. The Lawyer charged him with assault, and quick a claim put in, That for the same the damages be laid upon his skin. Attachment writ at once he took, upon the offending _claws_; And moved he should be boiled alive, in vengeance for the laws. The Lobster in his mute amaze, allowed that _clause_ to pass; Nor had the foresight to exclaim ‘Produce your capias!’ So borne along all bodily, and sore against his will, The Lobster proved the heavy weight, of more than lobster’s ill. For they not only _boiled_ but _ate_, his body, claws and all; And most provokingly enjoyed the inglorious festival. They cracked his shell, and cracked their jokes--pulled off that leg and this-- Forgetful all of ‘_Nil nisi bonum de mortuis_.’ Now hence be warned, ye bustling men, and in your projects pause-- Beware into your neighbour’s pot, how you thrust in your claws. Ye busy wights! reflect ye how this luckless Lobster got, By injudicious meddling, from cold water into hot. To tread upon another’s toes, I pray be not too bold-- But when you’re in _cold_ water, try to _keep_ the water cold.
Lord Anson mentions having caught cray-fish at Juan Fernandez of eight and nine lbs. weight, that were of an excellent flavour. Lobsters are also found in such quantities on the same island, that the fishermen have no other trouble to take them than to strew a little meat upon the shore, and when they come to devour the bait, as they do in immense numbers, to turn them on their backs with a stick. This is gravely asserted by the Abbé Molina, in his _History of Chile_, so I suppose it must be true. Turning a turtle is a common practice, but I should think it somewhat difficult to get a lobster on its back. By this simple method thousands of lobsters are taken annually; and the tails, which are in high estimation, dried and sent to Valparaiso.
A late traveller, in his _Life in China_, describes a very peculiar dish:--‘When our party of six had seated themselves at the centre table, my attention,’ he says, ‘was attracted by a _covered_ dish, something unusual at a Chinese meal. On a certain signal, the cover was removed; and presently the face of the table was covered with juvenile crabs, which made their exodus from the dish with all possible rapidity. The crablets had been thrown into a plate of vinegar just as the company sat down--such an immersion making them more brisk and lively than usual. But the sprightly sport of the infant crabs was soon checked, by each guest seizing which he could, dashing it into his mouth, crushing it between his teeth, and swallowing the whole morsel without ceremony. Determined to do as the Chinese did, I tried this novelty also with one--with two. I succeeded, finding the shell soft and gelatinous, for they were tiny creatures, not more than a day or two old. But I was compelled to give in to the third, which had resolved to take vengeance, and gave my lower lip a nip so sharp and severe, as to make me relinquish my hold, and likewise desist from any further experiments of this nature.’
Shrimps (_Crangon vulgaris_) and prawns (_Palæmon serratus_) frequent shallow waters along the sandy coasts of the British Islands, of America, Europe, and indeed most countries. Besides furnishing nutriment to great numbers of fish, aquatic birds, &c., they are in great request in England for the table--the consumption in London alone being enormous. In 1850, 192,295 gallons were received and sold at Billingsgate Market, weighing 875 tons, and valued at £6,000. In the Sandwich Islands, shrimps are eaten alive as a _bonne bouche_, with salad and vinegar; but we prefer them in this country boiled. Shrimping by the dredge net, or sweep net, affords abundant employment to numerous persons. On the North American coasts shrimps are more plentiful than on the European shores. At times, the waters of the Straits of Northumberland appear as if thickened with masses of shrimps moving about, their course being plainly indicated by the fish of all descriptions which follow in their wake, and feed upon them greedily. Potted shrimps are considered a dainty, and meet ready sale in the metropolis as a breakfast relish.
Those _bons vivants_ who are fond of these delicious small fry, will no doubt eat them with an increased relish after reading the following paragraph:--
‘The office of shrimps seems to be that analogous to some of the insects on land, whose task is to clear away the remains of dead animal matter after the beasts and birds of prey have been satiated. If a dead small bird or frog be placed where ants can have access to it, those insects will speedily reduce the body to a closely cleared skeleton. The shrimp family, acting in hosts, as speedily remove all traces of fish or flesh from the bones of any dead animal exposed to their ravages. They are, in short, the principal scavengers of the ocean; and, notwithstanding their office, they are highly prized as nutritious and delicious food.’
‘Amongst the shell-fish tribe,’ says a writer in the _Caledonian Mercury_, ‘the _prawn_ is considered the most delicious, and of course is the most costly. Prawn-fish, which are about double or three times the size of a shrimp, are in general sold at the rate of 1_s._ per dozen. This high price may be owing to their scarcity, in comparison with the quantity of shrimps sent to market, with a view to give prawn-fishers encouragement to prosecute the trade. The prawn-fish are not what many people suppose, ‘only shrimps of a larger size.’ Their heads and fore-claws are differently marked, showing at once the distinction. The habits of the two fish are also different. The shrimp burrows in the sand, causing fishermen to use trawl-nets for their capture. They are caught in greatest numbers on sandbanks, about the entrance of estuaries. The prawn-fish chiefly locate amongst rocks, and hard bottom, where there is much tangle and sea-weed. The fishermen at Bognor, in Sussex, and some place on the Isle of Wight, catch prawns in wicker-worked baskets, shaped exactly like those wire-worked rat-traps that have the entrance on the top, so that ‘when the rat gets in, it can’t get out again.’ Several hundreds of these baskets baited with any sort of garbage, fish heads, &c., are set amongst the rocks at low water, where they remain until the tide has flown to its full, and again ebbed. The baskets are then overhauled, to see what luck. Prawn-fishing, like every other description of fishing, is not always to be depended on. Some tides, not one prawn may be found in hundreds of baskets; at other times every trap may have secured its victims. From five up to 60, and as high as 70 prawns have at times been taken in one trap. The baskets with which the English fishermen catch lobsters are just of the same shape as the prawn-trap, the only difference being that they are of larger dimensions.’
Immense prawns (_Camaroes_) are very plentiful at Rio Janeiro. Strangers are often told as a joke, that these are kept in pits, and fed with the dead bodies of slaves, thrown to them from time to time, and many people will in consequence not touch them.
The following instructions for cooking shrimps and prawns may be acceptable in out-of-the-way localities, where they are bought alive from the fishermen:--
‘To dress shrimps and prawns, so that they might at once be tasty and look well to the eye, is considered a very nice point for the cook to perform. A pot, containing a pickle that will nearly float an egg, is put on the fire. When the pickle begins to boil, the prawns (all alive) are put into it, which of course sends the pickle below the boiling point for a time. A brisk fire must be kept up under the pot, and when the pickle again boils up, the prawns are cooked. Should they not be boiled sufficiently, they are as soft as pulp, and if boiled too much, they are hard as horn. The fish are removed from the pot and spread on a table, sprinkling over them a little salt. A cloth is then thrown over the whole, which keeps in the steam. By this operation, the steam melts the salt, and imparts to the prawn that beautiful red and glossy appearance seen on them whilst in the London fishmongers’ shops.’
It might probably be possible to save some of our refuse shrimps, which get too stale to find customers here, and dry them for export to the East, where they are in great demand. The trade in dried shrimps in Siam amounts to 60 tons a year; and they cannot get enough of them to pound up with their rice.
Dried prawns form a considerable article of trade in the Philippines. The Malays and the Siamese, who eat dried prawns and dried mussels, must have very tough stomachs to digest them, and it would take an ostrich’s gizzard, one would suppose, to triturate other tough dried molluscs used, in different localities, such as the _Haliotis_ dried. Thus the ‘pearl womb,’ as the mantle or flesh of the pearl-oyster (_Meleagrina margaritifera_) is called, is strung and dried, and when cooked with cassia buds is eaten with rice. Numerous minute pearls are often found in this substance (as is sometimes the case with the common oyster) during mastication.
There is scope enough to be found for drying this mollusc, when a government pearl fishery is on at Ceylon, for then millions of pearl-oysters are thrown on the shore, after being opened, and left there to rot.
Under the name of _Balachong_ or _gnapee_, there is a mess made in Burmah, Sumatra, &c., of prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish, pounded into a consistent mass, and frequently allowed to become partially putrid. It is largely used by the natives as a condiment to their rice, as no vegetable food is deemed palatable without it; and a considerable trade is carried on with it, its use extending to every country from China to Bengal.
In all populous cities there is great consumption of oysters, both of the large common kinds termed ‘scuttlemouths’ by the venders, and of the more expensive and small delicate fed ‘native.’ Even the mangrove or tree oyster is esteemed in the tropics. One hundred or two hundred of these parasitic oysters may often be found on a single bough, pendent in the water, in the rivers of Africa, or the West Indies.
We can well conceive the astonishment of Columbus and his mariners when, in the Gulf of Paria, they first found oysters clinging to the branches, their mouths open as was supposed, to receive the dew, which was afterwards to be transformed into pearls.
The spawn of the fish is attached by a glutinous substance to any object with which it comes in contact, and the adhesion continues until the oyster is forcibly removed. On the southern coasts of the United States, in Florida and Louisiana, oysters may thus be seen growing as it were on trees, or the limbs at least of those which have sunk into the water, by the weight of the foliage, or from any other cause. The opossum and the racoon feed upon these oysters, procuring them by lifting the boughs from the water, and hence the American name racoon oysters, a term they are universally known by. They are of a long slender shape, and growing very rapidly, always have thin and delicate shells.
The value of the oysters sold in the city of New York now exceeds £1,250,000 sterling. The money invested in the trade by 150 wholesale dealers is about £100,000, and the number of persons employed in the business, directly or indirectly, including saloon keepers, street venders, &c., is 50,000. Of the whole amount sold in the markets, about two-thirds come from Virginia, which has a more extensive oyster trade than any other State in the Union. The residue is obtained, according to the _New York Herald_, from the waters of their own State, and those of New Jersey--the East River furnishing the largest quantity. A considerable supply is procured from Shrewsbury and York Bay; but very few of the latter are consumed in the city, as they are cultivated particularly for the western market. One of the most interesting features in the business is the transplanting of oysters, or their removal from the ‘rock,’ or natural bed, to an artificial one. This process is of peculiar importance, and absolutely necessary to the successful prosecution of the trade. It would, in fact, be next to impossible to supply the market during the whole year, but for the general system of transplanting which is pursued by all the dealers. More than a million dollars’ worth are removed every year to artificial beds, and by this means prevented from spawning, which renders them unfit for use. Thus, a large proportion of the East River oysters were originally obtained from the North River, where the soil and water are not considered so favourable to their cultivation. Of the fifty thousand persons engaged in the business, the majority, of course, are dependent upon their own labour for support; but there are a considerable number of the dealers, or, as they might more properly be called, oyster merchants, who possess large fortunes, amassed from the sale of oysters alone. They are amongst the most worthy of her citizens, and New York is not a little indebted to their enterprise for her extensive business in what has now become an indispensable article of food.
It is only within the last thirty years that the oyster trade was established in New York. Before that time, it is true, oysters were sold there; but the business transacted was exceedingly limited, and there was little or no inducement for persons to engage in it. Nearly all that were brought to market were procured from the natural beds, for the benefits to be obtained from planting were but imperfectly understood by a few of the dealers, or entirely unknown to them. In the course of a few years, however, the business grew into importance, and men of capital and enterprise engaged in it. The planting of beds--a very essential part of the trade--was commenced; the few oyster boats, of diminutive size, engaged in supplying New York, became an immense fleet; an extensive trade began with Virginia; the East River became a mine of wealth to those who worked its beds; the coasts of the bays and the shores of the rivers were explored and given over to the tongs, the scraper, and the dredges of the oystermen. It was found that by removing the oyster from its natural bed to an artificial one, it could not only be increased in size, but improved in quality, and rendered fit for use at any period of the year. This was a very important matter to understand, for there are certain months when the oyster is unfit for use, in consequence of its being full of spawn. While they remained in the natural bed, they were always subject to this objection; but if not permitted to lie too long in the artificial one, they could be preserved free from spawn. Although they increased in size, they seldom or never became more numerous by transplanting. Hundreds of vessels are constantly employed, during certain months, in transplanting in the East River, in Prince’s Bay, and other parts of the State.
The appended summary will give some further idea of the extent of the oyster trade in New York:--
Number of boats of all sizes, from fifty to two hundred and fifty tons, employed in the trade in Virginia oysters 1,000 In the East and North River trade 200 In the Shrewsbury trade 20 In the Blue Point and Sound trade 100 In the York Bay trade 200 ----- Whole number of boats 1,520
The following table will show the annual amount of sales of all kinds of oysters by the wholesale dealers in New York:--
Sales of Virginia oysters, including those dollars. planted in Prince’s Bay 3,000,000 Sales of East and North River oysters 1,500,000 Do. of Shrewsbury oysters 200,000 Do. of Blue Point and Sound oysters 200,000 Do. of York Bay oysters 300,000 --------- Sales 5,200,000