REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 19,3 



XI. Summary of Facts Thus Far Considered. 



In order to present in a clearer and more tangible form a summarized 

 statement of the facts contained in the foregoing pages, the writer 

 has made out the following table, which is based upon the observations 

 already considered and, when they have been wanting, upon pure 

 deduction. The very great variation in the size of lobsters, even of 

 the same age and stage, renders it well-nigh impossible to tell off-hand, 

 by any known means, the exact age of any adult lobster. On the 

 other hand, the size of large numbers of individuals of a certain age 

 must form a general average, on a basis of which, the age of a group 

 of lobsters can be determined with a very fair degree of certainty. 

 It is this average, together with the correlated age, which the writer 

 attempts to formulate in the following table : 



