i 9 S 



THE CllDE TO NATURE 



M:k 



OUTDOOR WORLD 



The Lobster and Its Propagation. 



BY WILBUR F. SMITH, GAME WAKDKX, 

 SOUTH XORWALK, CONN. 



Whoever goes a fishing will tell you 

 that there is something other than the 

 fish caught that constitutes the "lure" 

 which calls men to the brook winding 

 its way through the cool woods and 

 the sunn}- meadow, or to the broad 

 expanse of salt water that hides and 

 protects its finny inhabitants, and I 

 think that there is a like "lure" and a 

 fascination, calling to the men "who 

 go down to the sea" to fish for lobsters, 

 for their work is hard, full of exposure, 

 and beset with loss of tackle and traps. 



Time was when the lobster was 

 abundant from Nova Scotia to the Del- 

 aware capes, and before man, its great- 

 est enemy came into the field there 

 is abundant evidence to show that the 



A LOBSTER, SHOWING THE LOCATION OF 



Tin-: eggs. 



lobster was a favored race, for we read 

 that in the fifties, off the central coast 

 of Maine, it was not uncommon for 

 boys to pull large lobsters from under 

 the boulders along the sea shore. 



Now lobsters have almost disap- 

 peared from some of the places where 

 they were once so abundant, and are 

 scarce in others, and it is safe to say 

 that there is not one lobster in the 

 sea today where there was ten. fifty 

 years ago. Lobsters reproduce by 

 eggs which are "taken on" during the 

 summer months and carried attached 

 to the swimming feet on the under 

 side of the abdomen for about ten 

 months, are of a greenish black color 

 at first, changing to yellow when ready 

 to hatch, at which time the embryo 

 lobster may be seen in the egg, which 

 after hatching floats about with the 

 tide for about two weeks, by which 

 time they have moulted four times and 

 now sink to the bottom and conceal 

 themselves in the sand and under 

 stones, and if all goes well in about five 

 years they have attained a length of 

 nine inches, the smallest size that thev 

 may be taken in Connecticut. 



The lobster grows by casting its 

 shell which at stated times solits down 

 the center of the body shell and across 

 the middle joint, and the lobster crawls 

 out limo, soft and helpless. The gr twth 

 now takes place and in a few days, the 

 lobster again has a hard shell and has 

 grown about fifteen per cent, of it^ for- 

 mer length, thus a nine inch lobster 

 before moulting will be ten and one-half 

 inches long after moulting. 



The movement of lobsters is from 

 deen to shallow water during: the time 



