THE EEPRODUCTION OF THE LOBSTER. 69 



interesting to calculate what the probable effect of the operations there 

 being carried on is likely to be. 



From the Report of the Nctvfoundland Department of Fisheries for 

 1893, it appears that the largest number of ova dealt with in any one 

 year was 696,517,690, in 1891. Calculating the number of survivors 

 at 2 in 30,000 (as a matter of fact, 20 per cent, were lost before 

 hatching, a much greater number than would be lost under natural 

 conditions), this would give 46,434 adult lobsters added to the neigh- 

 bourhood. Even if all these 46,434 were caught, the percentage of 

 increase on the whole fishery (a little over 5,000,000 in 1893) would be 

 0"9 per cent. 



A consideration of the steps by which this conclusion has been 

 reached will, I think, leave the impression that it is still far too high, 

 and that a very much smaller percentage would much more nearly 

 represent the truth. As to whether the result is sufficient to justify 

 the trouble and expense involved in bringing it about, I will not 

 venture to express an opinion. 



If the larvee could be reared through their early pelagic stage and 

 not liberated until their natural instincts lead them to seek the bottom 

 and hide themselves, the result would, as Herrick maintains, be pro- 

 bably very different ; but if this could be successfully done on a large 

 scale, as no doubt it might be if sufficient capital were put into the 

 undertaking, there seems no reason why the young lobsters should 

 not be reared to the adult stage, and to marketable size, and not turned 

 into the sea at all. An undertaking of this kind, carried out on a scale 

 similar to that upon which oyster- farming is conducted on the Continent, 

 might very probably be made a success. 



