The figures v/hich show the diiration of each stnge are to be reijarded 

 as i.ilnir.Qo They refer alvrays tc t]ie first appearance of a neaT stage.* 

 There are however i.Tcny lute conors even thou)';h the larvae arc of 

 the same age« In all cases the first larvae in the -ith stage were 

 noted in 11 - 12 days, usually the young T:ere not planted until 

 after the r^assiuf of about 16 days out even then there invar ialily 

 were sone present in the 3d sta^ec 



The seed lobsters got rid of their eggs very early in 1920 

 so that even in the beginning of August it was imposs?".ble to ob- 

 tain sufficient larvaeo An attempt "V'jns still made to continue 

 testing by importing seed lobsters from Scotland, the Chairman 

 of the Fishery Board of Scotland lending his cooperation tov;rrd 

 this endo Transportation avns completely successful, the entire 

 shipment of 23 lobsters vnxs alive upon receipt© The eggs however 

 vrere in widely different stages of riponens and rnnny would not 

 hatch until the season of 1921s It proved impossible to collect 

 sufficient larvae to restock our rearing tc.-alcs© 



One of the most important reasons wliy so snail a i^ercentage 

 of larvae attained the 4-th stage during the tests in Tune was the 

 fact that the tanks had been painted v;ith creosote also on the 

 inside. The water thus was poisoned nnd this lasted throughout 

 the first series of tests o TVlien tanks Illf, 1^7 and V \Tere empty, 

 the first and last na:r.Gd '.7ere painted with varnish over the 

 creosote. I\s c result the p ercentages in III and V increased 

 consic-eracly vriiile TJ rcmined very lov;« Since other circumstances 

 during the tests were equal for all three tanlcs, the original 

 supposition of creosote poisoning during the first series vras 

 sufficiently proveno 



By far tiie best results were achieved during the last test 

 w}icn fully 27 per cent of the larvae reached the 4th stags* This 

 favorable shov/ing wa.s of impoi'tance especially because fron 

 almost the beginning to the end of the period bad wer.t'-_er and lew 

 temperatures prevailed.. The average temperature had been almost 

 2° lower than dioring July and 4° lower than in June yet the 4th 

 stage was attained in 12 - 13 days which tends to prove that a 

 4° drop in temperr.tiu'c does not lengthen the larvae period by 

 more than one dayo 



I believe hov.-ever that grovrt;h will be greatly retarded if 

 the temperature should fall to 15'^ or lovrer a,s was the case regu- 

 larly in July 1919. 



YJhere several tests failed completely in 1919, in 1920 the 

 4th stage was net reached in only one case and tliat as a result 

 of contamination of the water in the tanks 



137 



