20 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OJ' INLAND FISHERIES. 



who has reported repeatedly and in extenso in the not easily acces- 

 sible Annual Reports of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries of 

 Rhode Island (29th to 35th report), and also recently in a short 

 summary in the Proceedings of the American Fisheries Society, 

 1905 (p. 156-166). 



From the latter treatise we learn that the undertaking of the ex- 

 periments on the part of the Rhode Island Fish Commission — parti}'' 

 in collaboration with the U. S. Fisheries Bureau — is owing to the in- 

 stigation of Dr. H. C. Bumpus, who was formerly himself engaged 

 in studies on the lobster, and who was at that time Director of the 

 Wood's Hole Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission and a mem- 

 ber of the Rhode Island Fish Commission, and who now is Director 

 of the great Museum of Natural History in New York. The ex- 

 periments began in the year 1900 with gauze bags, which were hung in 

 the water and allowed the water free access into their interior. But, 

 since the bags were weighted, in calm weather the lobster larvse 

 gathered, along with remnants of food, in the pockets which were 

 formed by the weights. This was as unfavorable for them as the 

 blowing of the bags out of the water in a strong wind when the weights 

 were removed. 



But finally the continuation and variation of the experiments 

 led to the discovery that the secret of success in the culture lies in 

 keeping up a constant motion of the water in the breeding bags. 

 Through this motion of the water a two fold result is obtained : the 

 larvse are prevented from lodging in corners and folds of the breeding 

 bags and there mutually feasting on one another; and the food is 

 kept evenly suspended in the bag so that it is easily within the reach 

 of all the animals under experiment. 



Next it was established by means of a preliminary experiment 

 what advantages the motion of the water afforded. In this case it 

 was carried on by hand with an oar. It became at once apparent 

 that a vastly greater number of larvse could be carried over into the 

 fourth life-stage than in the earlier experiments, and that these lar- 



