39 



items : »The development of the embryo in eggs laid on the seventh or 

 eighth of August vras so rapid that on the third of September the eyes 

 were visible as thin crescent-shaped spots. As the waters grew colder 

 the progress was retarded «until the changes were very slight indeed. 

 This condition was maintained throughout the Avinter, and it was only 

 when the summer temperature was reached that rapidity of advance- 

 ment was again to be noted. The young began to hatch on the four- 

 teenth of July ; all of the eggs on a female seeming to be about equally 

 advanced, the entire brood emerged at very nearly the same time. 

 Examination of the ovaries, after their young had left, showed that 

 the females would not have laid eggs again for a year ; that is, not be- 

 fore the summer next following that in which they had hatched a 

 brood. In other words , the dissections proved that the lobster lays 

 only once in two years, hatching a brood one summer and laying eggs 

 the next following summer for another brood. The time required in 

 the development of the embryo is so long as to preclude hatching the 

 eggs under ordinary circumstances during the summer in which they 

 are laid. Artificial conditions might readily be brought about, by 

 heating the water in Avhich specimens are kept, which would hasten 

 the progress and greatly shorten the period between laying and hatch- 

 ing; but normally the winter temperature induces an almost complete 

 suspension of advancement.« 



Remarking on the variations to be expected on account of diffe- 

 rences in temperature, in early seasons as compared with late ones, 

 that might hasten or retard development, or on such modifications as 

 pertain to different parts of the coasts, I continued : «Though the bulk 

 of the laying or of the hatching in any particular year occurs within 

 periods of two or three weeks, probably four-fifths of either is finished 

 in less than a fortnight; to make allowance for the early years and for 

 the late ones, and to include the early and the belated individuals, it 

 becomes necessary to considerably extend the general periods. From 

 all that has been gathered we may summarize as follows: 1) the female 

 lobster lays eggs but once in two years, the layings being two years 

 apart; 2) the normal time of laying is when the water has reached its 

 summer temperature, varying in different seasons and places, the pe- 

 riod extending from about the middle of June till about the first of 

 September ; and 3) the eggs do not hatch before the summer following 

 that in which they were laid, the time of hatching varying with the 

 temperature, and the period extending from about the middle of May 

 till about the first of August.« 



My publication was reprinted by Superintendant Fred Math er in 

 the Twenty first (1892) Annual Report of the Fishery Commissioners 



