32 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



The successful transplanting of lobsters must depend upon the new 

 region affording conditions sufficiently like those of the old to favor the 

 growth and reproduction of the species ; but the relative conditions of 

 different regions have never been carefully studied with this object in 

 view, and we are to-day unable to state precisely in what manner the 

 Pacific coast waters agree with, or differ from, those of the Atlantic 

 coast. Neither the temperatures nor the specific gravity of the waters 

 of the two coasts have been compared, and it is only through incidental 

 experiments that the fact has been ascertained that a few species from 

 each coast are able to live and thrive upon the other. The conditions 

 that are essential to, or control the existence of a species in a new region 

 undoubtedly varj- more or less according to its organization, and the 

 effects of changes of location upon the higher Crustacea have been but 

 little studied, if at all. Above all tlie new-comer must have the power 

 to sustain itself in the struggle for existence with those forms which 

 already occupy the ground, and have been accustomed to it from long 

 habit. Careful studies and experiments in this line of research, with 

 reference to marine forms, would be of great practical benefit to the 

 aims of the Fish Commission, and would probably lead to the trans- 

 planting of many kinds of marine products to regions which are now 

 poorly supplied with edible forms. 



A sort of transplanting of young lobsters has been going on along the 

 New England coast, and especially the southern i)ortion of it, ever since 

 the well-smack lobster trade began. The fact was mentioned above that 

 immense quantities of embryo lobsters appear at the surface of the wells 

 in the carrier smacks during the hatching season, and as the smacks jour- 

 ney along they work out through the holes in the bottom of the well, 

 and are thus constantly adding to the supply of the regions through 

 which the smacks pass. It is unquestionable that the abundance of 

 lobsters on the southern New England coast has been partly kept up, 

 and probably increased at times in the past, by this transplanting of the 

 young, and this fact was noticed and referred to over thirty years ago. 

 The fishermen have the greatest respect for the embryo lobsters that 

 appear in the wells of their smacks, and take great i)ains that no harm 

 shall come to them. 



Numerous accounts have appeared in the newspapers, from time to 

 time, since tliis transplanting occurred, to the effect that many young 

 lobsters, supposed to be the progeny of those brought over by Mr. 

 Stone, had been taken by the fishermen in the vicinity of San Francisco. 

 Careful investigation, however, has failed to substantiate these reports, 

 and the few small lobsters, so-called, that have been referred to nat- 

 uralists, have proved to belong to another related genus, quite common 

 on the California coast, but the species of which never grow to a lengthy 

 of more than 3 or 4 inches. 



WAsniNGTON, J). C, JJecemhcr 16, 1885. 



