REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 119 



to the establishment in connection with which it has been evolved 

 and certain details of construction are vestiges of former experiments 

 too good to be cast aside but not to be exactly copied in new con- 

 struction. As it stands to-day, the apparatus consists of a house- 

 boat bulit like a catamaran of two pontoons with a "well" or open 

 space between them, originally intended and used, indeed, for hold- 

 ing experimental cars. At both ends the space between the pontoons 

 is decked and on each deck is a small house. The houseboat floats on 

 the water moored securely in a small cove directly over the channel 

 in a good tideway (fig. 1.) It forms the nucleus of a collection of 

 skeleton rafts which nearly surround it and which all together occupy 

 a considerably larger area than the houseboat itself. Four rafts, 

 19 by 75 J feet, lying two on either side of the houseboat, contain 

 the cars for hatching and rearing lobster larvae. The rafts of each 

 pair are bolted fast together and buoyed by barrels (fig. 1). The 

 inside rafts on either side of the houseboat are fastened to the latter 

 with eyebolts sliding over vertical rods to allow solely for up-and- 

 down motion. Each of the four rafts contains six rearing cars, 10 by 

 10 feet square and 4 feet deep, so arranged that they can be held down 

 in place or raised out of the water to be cleaned (figs. 2 and 4). The 

 rearing cars are provided with removable windows covered with 16- 

 mesh bronze woven wire screens, to allow for renewal of water and 

 to prevent escape of fry. There are two windows about 2 feet 

 square on the bottom and two long narrow ones in the middle of 

 two opposite sides. 



For several years previous to last summer canvas bags about the 

 dimensions of these boxes and provided also with screen windows were 

 used almost exclusively. They equaled or perhaps surpassed the 

 boxes in point of efficiency when they were in perfect condition, but 

 were less durable and were more difficult to clean. 



The apparatus for keeping the water in motion consists of a two- 

 bladed horizontally placed propeller of about 4| feet radius not unlike 

 those sometimes in use over restaurant tables (fig. 4); the latter, in 

 fact, suggested their adoption. The propeller blades are hung inside 



