156 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



With these facts in mind, the writer has herewith attempted to 

 offer a limited amount of new observations upon the rate of develop- 

 ment of the American lobster and, recalling some observations of 

 other writers, to make an estimate of the age of lobsters in different 

 stages of development. A great number of the facts here reported 

 have fallen under the writer's own observation while engaged in the 

 work of artificial lobster propagation at the Experiment Station of 

 the Rhode Island Fish Commission, at Wickford, R. I. He has, 

 however, taken the liberty to make free use of data from several other 

 reliable sources, as Herrick, Buckland, Boeck, G. O. Sars, Mead, 

 Williams, Brook, Emmel, Goode, Dalyell, Bumpus, Packard, Gorham, 

 Cobb, and others, each one of whom has presented facts which, when 

 combined with the others, help to construct a somewhat fuller ac- 

 count of the rate of growth of Homarus than has yet been obtained 

 from any single source. 



II. Earlier Observations on the Rate of Growth. 



1. Amount of Increase at Molts. 



The question was raised by Herrick ('95), "Howdong does it take 

 a lobster to attain marketable size?" (lOJ inches in Massachusetts.) 

 Herrick himself was the first to gather data, make an estimate, and 

 to give a tentative answer. For this reason, before considering our 

 own and other observations, it may be appropriate and of advantage 

 to examine briefly the result of this writer's numerous and careful 

 observations, made at the Woods Hole Station of the United States 

 Fish Commission, upon the size and molting periods of lobsters in 

 all of the earlier, and many of the later, stages of development. To 

 show the average length of young lobsters in the first ten stages, 

 Herrick presents the following table: 



