74 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



the lobsters moult. We have ascertained that the fry, immedi- 

 ately after hatching, shed their skins three times during- the first 

 two weeks, and afterwards less frequently, but with no fixed period 

 between moults. It is certain, also, that in the case of egg-bear- 

 ing lobsters, the moulting cannot take place while the eggs are 

 carried, from July or August to the following June, without loss 

 of the eggs. Until some way shall be devised of putting a mark 

 upon the lobster which can easily be recognized after the shell is 

 shed, we can hardly expect to settle the question definitely. 



There is apparently no definite limit to the size attained by 

 lobsters. There are authenticated published records of several 

 large specimens, measuring 20 inches or over from the beak to the 

 end of the tail. Two of the largest of these were taken off Atlan- 

 tic Highlands, in the spring of 1897, and are now preserved in the 

 American Museum of Natural History. They measure respect- 

 ively 23f inches and 21^ inches from beak to end of tail, not in- 

 cluding hairs. The larger specimen, which was for a time exhib- 

 ited in Castle Square Aquarium, weighed thirty -four pounds when 

 alive ; the smaller one about thirty-one pounds. Herrick described 

 a large male specimen which was caught in Penobscot Bay, in 

 May, 1891. The length as measured was 20 inches, but would have 

 been about 21 had the beak been perfect ; the living weight was 

 about twenty-three pounds. He also mentions two large female 

 egg-bearing lobsters caught by Vinal Edwards, fifteen miles south 

 of No Man's Land, in 1894. One of them was 19 inches long, and 

 carried 91,350 eggs (estimated) ; the other was only 16 inches in 

 length, but carried 97,440 eggs. During the last fall a lobster of 

 unusual size for our waters was taken in a fish trap off Newport. 

 It weighed nineteen pounds, and measured 15f inches in length. 

 This specimen is now in the museum of the commission at the 

 State House. 



These descriptions of large specimens of modern times, and 

 their actual measurements, seem tame beside the tales of giant 

 lobsters in literature and tradition. Alice Morse Earle, in her 

 " Colonial Days in Old New York," says : " Patriarchal lobsters 



