Is thought highly restorative by the French. It is considered peculiarly
grateful, and gently stimulating to the stomach, after hard drinking or
night-watching, and holds among soups the place that champagne,
soda-water, or ginger-beer, does among liquors.
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Lobsters and crabs are in season from March till October; so that they
supply the place of oysters, which come in about the time lobsters go
out of season. Lobsters are held in great esteem by gastrologers for the
firmness, purity, and flavour of their flesh. When they find refuge in
the rocky fastnesses of the deep from the rapacity of sharks and
fishermen, they sometimes attain an immense size, and have been found
from eighteen inches to upwards of two feet in length. Apicius, who
ought to be the patron saint of epicures, made a voyage to the coast of
Africa on hearing that lobsters of an unusually large size were to be
found there, and, after encountering much distress at sea, met with a
disappointment. Very large lobsters are at present found on the coasts
of Orkney. Some naturalists affirm (Olaus Magnus and Gesner,) that in
the Indian seas, and on the wild shores of Norway, lobsters have been
found twelve feet in length, and six in breadth, which seize mariners in
their terrible embrace, and, dragging them into their caverns, devour
them. However this may be, the lobsters and crabs for being devoured are
best when of the middle size, and when found on reefs or very rocky
shores.
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