REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 149 



dividually and put by themselves in a retaining bag. As soon as a 

 sufficient number has been collected in this bag they are transported 

 to the place where they are to be liberated, in large galvanized iron 

 cans with a loose cover over the top. A suitable shore, one composed 

 of rocks, with a growth of short eel-grass or seaweed of some sort, is 

 selected, and the young lobsters poured out just at the water's edge 

 (Plate XXIV). The morning is the best time for transporting and 

 liberating them. If the time during transportation is long, a tight 

 can with ice may be suspended in the can containing the lobsters; 

 but where there is to be only two or three hours' confinement in the 

 can, care in keeping it from the sun and frequent aeration of the water 

 by stirring, is all that will be necessary. 



The above plan is the result of experience. At first the lobsters 

 were liberated at the surface of rather deep water over a rocky ledge. 

 The fry when poured out would sink for some distance and then the 

 greater part would rise and swim about. Just how long this swim- 

 ming was continued is not known, but instances occurred where in- 

 dividual lobsters, which had some distinguishing mark, as the absence 

 of a claw or a peculiar tuft of diatomaceous growth, have been 

 liberated by accident near the houseboat, and have been observed 

 for several days swimming from one beam of the float to another, 

 though the bottom was only from 6 to 10 feet distant. It is hardly 

 needful to comment on this method of liberation. Tautog abounding 

 around such ledges would scarcely allow such an opportunity to go 

 by without taking advantage of it. Perhaps few lobsterlings would 

 ever become established in safe retreats. 



Profiting by this experience, the idea of liberating on the shore was 

 tried. Here another distinction between favorable and unfavorable 

 places was found. If the lol^sterlings were poured out at the edge 

 of the water where the shore was composed of white or light colored 

 rocks, the majority of them would swim out from the shore while 

 still near the surface, and apparently the result would be smiliar to 

 liberating in deep water. If the shore, however, afforded a dark 

 background, especially if this was occasioned by eelgrass, algae, or 



