HABITS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOBSTER. 83 



the rock piles, where the rocks were several tiers deep, that the smallest lobsters 

 were found. The smallest which Mr. Spinney sent me were taken in Small Point 

 Harbor, October 9 to 10, and measured 1-56 to 1-62 inches ; they were all found deep 

 among the rock piles, where no enemy could reach them, and were about four mouths 

 old. When the lobsters attain a length of 3 to 4 inches tbey leave the stone piles and 

 take refuge under rocks, where they dig - a small hole, in which they lie concealed when 

 an enemy approaches. 



Yearling lobsters attain a length of at least 2 and possibly as great as 3 inches. 

 The increase in length of individual larvae at each molt is subject to considerable 

 variation, as we should expect, but the average increase is strikingly similar to that 

 seen in the adults. In either case the average increase in length at molting is from 12 

 to 13 per cent. 



Placing tbc length of the lobster one year old at 2 inches, and knowing the average 

 length of the larva at the time of hatching to be about one-third of an inch, or more 

 accurately 8-5 mm., we can estimate the number of the molts the young must pass 

 through during the first year of its life. Calculated on the basis of an increase at 

 each molt of 13 per cent, the lobster, when it is 2 inches long must have molted six- 

 teen times, and a 10.^-inch lobster would have molted thirty times. This estimate is 

 undoubtedly too great. It is, however, certain that during the first four months of 

 its life the young lobster molts at least ten times. Beyond this period, I have not 

 followed individual larvae. 



After reaching sexual maturity the female lobster does not, as a rule, molt oftener 

 than once iu two years. This is shown to be the case by the following facts. New- 

 egg lobsters, taken in summer, are almost invariably hard-shelled, and since the 

 majority of all lobsters molt in July, August, and September, the last shedding of such 

 lobsters must have taken place ten months or a year before the time of egg extrusion. 

 Furthermore, the eggs are carried for a period of at least ten months, during which, 

 molting is out of the question. After the young are hatched, however, a molt fol- 

 lows in the course of a few weeks. When the ovary of a female which has hatched 

 her young is examined, it is seen that the growing ova are in a very immature condi- 

 tion, and if their growth is studied at different times of the year it will be evident 

 that they can not be extruded until the summer following the hatching of the last 

 brood. We may therefore conclude that the sexual female lobster lays eggs and 

 molts at intervals of two years, and that these biennial periods are one year apart. 



I have known of only four or five cases of lobsters which have molted just before 

 spawning. New egg lobsters with soft shells are, in fact, so rare that many intelligent 

 lobsterinen who have fished for a quarter of a century have never seen one. 



As the lobster increases iu age the molting period is undoubtedly lengthened, but 

 it still takes place in individuals of extraordinary size, when one might suppose that 

 the time of senescence had arrived. 



The artificial propagation of the lobster is attended by difficulties which are not 

 met with in dealing with the same problem in fish. The ripe eggs can not be pressed 

 from the body and artificially fertilized and reared. Tbey must be taken in a fertile 

 and growing condition, when attached to the outside of the body of the female. The 

 best incubator for her eggs is undoubtedly the lobster, and it would be better policy 

 to leave matters with her, if she could be trusted in the hands of her greatest enemy, 

 man. Unfortunately this is not the case, and a wanton destruction of lobsters "in 



