“Lobster pots are pots to catch lobsters in,” said Teddy. “They take ’em out to sea with a brick inside, and when lobsters get in the men take ’em out.”
“What do they put a brick in for?” asked Janet. “Does a lobster like to eat a brick?”
“Course not!” laughed Ted. “They put some pieces of fish in for the lobster to eat, and the brick makes the wooden pot heavy so it sinks down on the bottom of the ocean. Then the lobster crawls in to get the fish bait, and it can’t crawl out again.”
“Why can’t it, and how do you know?” asked Janet.
“I know ’cause Captain Oleson told me,” answered Teddy. “And the lobster can’t get out ’cause he gets tangled in the piece of fish net. A lobster has to crawl backward in the ocean. He can’t go frontwards ’cause his big claws are in the way. He crawls backward into the little hole in the piece of fish net in the pot, and when he wants to crawl out again he can’t do it. He can’t find the hole ’cause he has to go backward all the while.”
“I should think,” said Janet, “that if he could find the hole to crawl in backward, he could find the hole to crawl out backward.”
“He can’t,” explained Ted, “’cause, Captain Oleson says, the hole where he goes in is big, like the big end of a funnel. But when he gets inside the hole is little, like the little end of a funnel, and he can’t find it.”
“Oh, I see what you mean!” exclaimed Janet, as she looked inside one of the several lobster pots scattered on the beach.
Lobster pots are tied together with a long rope, and, as Teddy explained, they are sunk to the bottom of the ocean by means of bricks inside them. The two ends of the ropes to which the pots are fastened are buoyed up by big pieces of cork, or are tied to poles, and on top of the poles the fisherman places red flags so he can find his pots when he comes to empty them. Sometimes a storm will break the mooring ropes and the pots will drift ashore.
The Curlytops were not certain whether these pots had drifted ashore or had been brought there purposely. At any rate, there were a number of the pots, which were black because they were covered with tar, which keeps them from rotting in the salty water of the ocean.