286 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



head, at once the wisest and most ignorant of all animals. His ignorance is especially 

 in contrast with his intelligence, when he deals with other creatures. And the lobster- 

 man is an iustauce; he wants to see lobsters plenty, because he rinds a ready market 

 for all he can get; but, when he raises a lobster pot and finds that two or three 

 small lobsters of 4 or 5 inches in length have ventured to eat the whole or part of 

 his bait, he is angry, and, instead of returning them to the water to grow, he mashes 

 them on the bottom of his boat. As well might the farmer shoot his young fowls for 

 eating his grain! The lobster will eat fish, clams, mussels, and other animal food, 

 fresh or stale, but in the pots a fresh bait is more attractive, and the lobstermen use 

 almost all kinds named for bait, and could, with small expense, so make their traps 

 that, when a lobster entered the pot, it could not devour the bait, and so afford to let 

 the young go free if the larger ones did not devour them in the pots. 



The power of the lobster to reproduce a leg or claw is well known. It is not 

 done until the next molt, when the new limb appears as a very small model of the 

 original, but after a few changes of shell the claw is restored to its normal size and 

 usefulness. The animal can and does cast a claw when frightened, especially in cold 

 weather, probably to satisfy its captor with a portion instead of the whole — a tub to 

 the whale, as it were. The claw is snapped off with a jerk, as if to say, "Take this 

 and let me go." The lobsterman never lifts the animal by its claws for this reason, 

 but grasps it by the thorax, leaving the large claws to hang down or turn up in a 

 vain attempt to pinch his hand. 



Our friend has two means of locomotion. When in danger it can go backward 

 rapidly by means of a few vigorous flaps of its tail, but ordinarily it crawls forward 

 on the bottom, holding its large claws well up. If left in a pool by the receding tide, 

 it would stay there and perish before trying to go overland to the sea, even if not 10 

 feet away.* When taken from the water the lobster is very helpless. Its specific 

 gravity is great; its enormous claws can not be lifted in air, and when laid on the 

 market slabs it remains where it is placed from sheer inability to move. 



Just how the eggs are impregnated is not known. It is said that the milt is 

 placed near the oviduct some time before the extrusion of the eggs, and that they are 

 fertilized by passing over it. Of this I know nothing, and merely insert this para- 

 graph to show that this question was not overlooked. The sexes of lobsters can easily 

 be distinguished without the presence of eggs, but it is no part of my purpose to enter 

 into the realm of anatomy or theory, as the title of this paper is "What We Know," 

 etc.t When the pairing takes place and how it is performed no man knows. A study 

 of the reproductive organs has developed a theory, and there we stop. 



The increase of population has naturally increased the consumption of lobsters, 

 and the great decrease in the size of this crustacean, referred to above, is an evidence 

 that they are slow of growth, and the marketable lobster of to-day, weighing from 

 one to two pounds, may be from four to six years old, possibly more. In all these 

 estimates of weights a fairly plump, well-fed lobster is meant, and not one that would 

 be rejected by the housewife as not worth picking the meat from, for she has learned 

 to weigh them in her hand, and of several of the same size, to choose the heaviest. 



We hope to increase the supply of lobsters by saving the eggs from destruction, 

 but the ever increasing demand for them will prevent their becoming cheaper. 



1 See Eighth Report New York Fish Commission, 1875, p. 23, tenth to eighth lines from bottom. 

 See "Fisheries Industries," section 1, pp. 795-809. 



