28 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



leave the egg in a couditiou very difl'ereiit from the parent, and undergo 

 a remarkable metamorphosis before they attain their proper form." 



The smackmen of the southern New England coast claim that the 

 eggs hatch in the wells of their smacks in the greatest abundance, from 

 some time in May until late in July, but that at other seasons they have 

 never seen any embrj^o lobsters, although the smack trade in lobsters 

 is kept up during nearly the entire year. During the season mentioned, 

 the surface of the water in the wells of the smacks often becomes per- 

 fectly alive with the young, and they may be scooped up by the hun 

 dreds of thousands. This evidence is tolerably conclusive as to the 

 duration of the principal hatching season, and determines the period 

 when experimental work in artificial propagation can best be under- 

 taken. The fact that a few of the eggs contained in the jars at the 

 Wood's Holl station of the Fish Commission hatched during November 

 of this year indicates, however, that some hatching may take place at 

 other seasons, as the conditions under which the eggs were kept were 

 l)erfectly normal, the water being of about the same temperature as that 

 of the harbor outside. Hatching is supposed to begin somewhat later 

 farther north. 



The writer was, at first, inclined to believe that the hatching con- 

 tinued to a considerable extent through the entire year, basing his con- 

 clusions upon the fact that, during the months of August and Septem- 

 ber last, eggs were found in various stages of development, from the 

 freshly laid and totally opaque ones to others in which the dark green- 

 ish yelk sack occupied scarcely more than one-half of the area of the 

 eg<^, the remainder being transparent and clearly showing the structure 

 of the embryo. Some of these eggs, preserved in the hatching-jars, 

 were carefully examined from day to day, and, although they exhib- 

 ited a certain amount of progress, development was slow. It finally 

 became evident that the development of the eggs was being retarded 

 by some cause, presumably the lower temperature of the water, and 

 this result, coupled with the statements of the fishermen, that embryos 

 are seen only in May, June, and July, makes it probable that the hatch- 

 ing of lobster eggs at other seasons is only an accidental or occasional 

 occurrence. It is also not at all improbable that the young hatched 

 during cold weather perish soon after they leave the egg, as they did 

 at Wood's Holl in November last. 



The liardy character of the lobster eggs, before referred to, favors 

 the idea of a long period of development, and they appear to be well 

 adapted to endure the hardships of a long winter. The rough handling 

 to which they were sometimes subjected, in connection with the experi- 

 ments of last summer, did not seem to harm them in the least. It is 

 also probable, from this quality of the eggs, that they are not destroyed 

 to any extent, in nature, unless actually eaten from the swimmerets of 

 the parent by predaceous fishes, and that the chief assistance which 

 artificial culture can give, in an attempt to increase the supply, must be 

 directed toward j^rotecting the embryos from the j^eriod of hatching. 



