No. 6. J WHITEAVES — MARINE FlStlERlES. M'^ 



last August drove more lobsters ashore \YithiD five miles of my 

 packing houses than I could make use of during the whole sum- 

 mer." ^'They formed a row of from one to five feet deep, and 

 I should estimate tlicm at an average of one thousand to every 

 two rods of shore/' '' Tiie next that came in shore after these 

 were very small, averaging from two to four inches in length, 

 and upwards, and the coast seemed alive with these small lob- 

 sters." It might be desirable to establish protected breeding 

 grounds for lobsters in the Gulf, on somewhat the same general 

 principle as oyster beds are formed. The season for lobsters 

 varies with the locality. In Gaspe Bay they are taken in July 

 and the beginning of August, but further south they appear ear- 

 lier and stay later. In the southern part of the Bay des Chaleurs 

 and on the northern New Brunswick coast, they approach the 

 shore late in May, and leave it -for deep water more or less late 

 in September. There seems to be a great difference of opinion 

 among the coast fishermen as to the time when lobsters spawn. 

 Very small specimens, always less than an inch in length were 

 frequently taken by the towing net in July and August at some 

 distance from land, swimming about among, floating weed. The 

 Hon. VV. H. Pope writes me that lobsters often burrow in the 

 sides of oyster beds during the winter months. 



Canadian Oysters. Osiroea Virginiana, Lister: and Ostrcea 

 boreaUs, Lamarck. It is not necessary or desirable to enter 

 minutely here into the somewhat complicated history of. the 

 synonymy of the two Canadian species of oyster. It is suiB&cient 

 for my present purpose to say that the long and narrow oyster, 

 which is abundant in Virginia, New York Bay, &c., was the first 

 of the oysters known in Europe from the temperate parts of North 

 America. The species was known to Linnaeus, and was originally 

 described by Lister as Ostrcta Virginiana. For the shorter and 

 more rounded form, Lamarck at a later date, proposed the name 

 of Osti'cea boreaUs, and gave a short diagnosis of the species. 

 Some varieties of this latter mollusc came so near to specimens 

 of the common British and north European oyster, that it is 

 difficult to distinguish between them. Oatroca Virginiana is 

 much the rarest of the two Canadian oysters, but between it and 

 the 0, boreaUs, there are so many intermediate varieties and con- 

 necting links, that many naturalists doubt the value of the specific 

 relation proposed. 



As the geographical range of the two forms is very similar, 



