18 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



question of how to care for large masses of eggs, and especially for the 

 young after hatching, was yet to be approached. 



In the fall of 1884, soon after the inner fish basin at Wood's Holl had 

 been completed, Capt. H. C. Chester, in charge of the station, trans- 

 ferred to it several hundred female lobsters with spawn, thinking tho,t 

 some of the eggs might hatch during the winter, but, if not, feeling cer- 

 tain that something might be done with them in the early spring. Un- 

 fortunately for his experiment, the work on the outer basins necessitat- 

 ing the employment of a large steam dredger, which kept the water 

 constantly loaded with sediment, and the frequent blasting of rocks, 

 caused the destruction of his entire stock before any results had been 

 reached. The method of continuing the work in the summer had not 

 yet been decided \\-pon, when an opportune letter, received from the 

 Norwegian fish-culturist, G. M. Dannevig, announced the successful 

 hatching of lobster eggs of the European species, detached from the 

 body of the i)arent, and the rearing of the young through the three 

 earliest stages. The manner of conducting his exi^eriments was not 

 described, but the fact that he had accomplished good results with de- 

 tached eggs gave us a basis to work uj)on. His letter was as follows : 



Flodevig, near Aeendal, Hs^Torway, July 14, 1885. 



Dear Sir : I hereby take great pleasure in informing you that the 

 experiments with the hatching of detached lobster eggs is progressing 

 very favorably, that the young are doing well, and that some of them 

 have attained what Prof. G. O. Sars calls the third stage. 



The length of the young lobster soon after hatching is about 9™™. 

 After 8 days, when the second changing of the shell or skin takes place, 

 it has attained the length of 12™°^, and after 16 days, when the third 

 change occurs, it is about IS™"*. The mortality was rather large for 

 some days, but is now only 1 to 3 in 24 hours, so that 95 still remain out 

 of 200 which were picked out for an experiment. They are very greedy, 

 but not so bad in killing one another as they were in the beginning. I 

 feed them principally with the soft parts of our crab. They like it well, 

 but their slender legs sometimes get entangled in the soft mass, and 

 then they die. Five hundred newly-hatched individuals are now in a 

 separate apparatus for further experiments. I wish to find out at what 

 stage the greatest loss takes place. I have great hopes now that I 

 shall master this question during the season, so that I can proceed upon 

 a large scale next summer. 



Very respectfully, 



G. M. DANNEVIG.* 



Prof. Spencer F. Baird, 



Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, Washington^ D. C. 



* For a later account of this experiment, see letter of G. M. Danuevig, iu Bull. U. 

 S. Fish Commissiou, v, p. 44G, 1885. 



