282 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



lessly face its enemies in search of food. It has been my fortune to witness this oper- 

 ation several times while connected with the New York Aquarium, Thirty-fifth street 

 and Broadway, in 1876-78, and twice since in lobster cars in Vineyard Sound, and it 

 is wonderful what a great increase in size takes place at once after the animal leaves 

 its shell. Another wonder is how the great claws are drawn through the very small 

 joints, one or two of which split lengthwise while others seem to soften and expand 

 enough to permit the passage of the claws. When we realize that the lining of the 

 stomach is attached to and cast with the old shell, it will be seen that the change of 

 armor is a complicated and difficult process, not unattended with danger. The new 

 shell is often to be seen under the old one, and then the lobster is in the same condi- 

 tion as the "shedder" crab, so eagerly bought by salt-water anglers for bait, the 

 body being somewhat shrunken from the shell. After casting the shell, the lobster 

 resembles the " soft" crab, which is so esteemed by the epicure that they are sold at 

 many times the price of the "hard" crab. These names apply to the common edible 

 or " blue crab," of the Atlantic coast, at different periods of growth. 



There is a singular prejudice among lobstermen against eating a soft lobster, which 

 does not extend to epicures. I have eaten of them when soft, and I think them excel- 

 lent; surely the animal is fat and in prime condition or it would not shed preparatory 

 to taking on greater size. Just how long it may take for the new shell to harden may 

 depend on temperature or other conditions. One in the New York Aquarium, in sum- 

 mer, became quite hard in about twenty hours, and took food the third day after shed- 

 ding. There seems to be a provision of nature that the female shall not cast her shell 

 until the eggs are hatched, otherwise they would be lost, as they are greedily devoured 

 by eels and other fish. The law of Massachusetts forbids "berried" lobsters to be 

 sent to market. The honest lobsterman, therefore, puts such a lobster in a car which 

 has holes large enough to admit eels, and in twenty-four hours she can be sent to 

 market in compliance with the law, for she will have no eggs left. 



I have purposely skipped from the little lobster that we left foraging on his first 

 spring campaign to the habits of the adult, which are the same, because we know 

 nothing of the rate of growth beyond the first season. We know that lobsters shed 

 their shells at irregular times during most of the year, more frequently in the warmer 

 portions, and that this only occurs because the creature is growiug and its armor is 

 not large enough. Just how old a marketable lobster of 2 to 10 pounds may be, no 

 man knows, and such knowledge could only be obtained by rearing them in confine- 

 ment, and then it might not be conclusive under different circumstances of food and 

 temperature, and the casting of the shell forbids marking individuals. 



The female spawns but once in two years. Notes made on the eggs of lobsters in 

 the New York Aquarium show that they hatched before July, or when the water 

 reached a temperature of about 60° F. In 1801 I began the hatching of lobsters for 

 the New York State Fishery Commission, of which I am one of the superintendents, 

 and found that eggs taken from lobsters from the middle to the last of July did not 

 hatch that year. Then it seemed as if the lobster might be a biennial spawner, but I 

 did not dare to say so. A report of my observations sent to Prof. Samuel Garman, of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., brought a letter dated August 

 30, 1802, complimenting my studies on the life-history of the lobster and inclosing a 

 report to the Massachusetts Fish Commission, dated December 17, 1801, in which he 

 shows that his investigations proved that the lobster spawned but once in two years. 

 Therefore, I have solid backing in making the statement that heads this paragraph. 





