MARINE FOOD PISHES. 



3S 



pretty well developed, with the exception of the claws, aud can be distinguished through 

 the transparent skin in which the body is enveloped. The young are not provided with 

 any yolk-bag, but begin swimming aboiit and feeding shortly after breaking from the 

 egg. They are most voracious, aud if kept in a confined place will devour each other, and 

 light till few remain alive. If, however, they are fed well, their cannibalistic, pugnacious 

 tendencies are greatly lessened. In the hatchery they are fed on yolks of eggs, fresh fish 

 liver, finely chopped meat of crabs aud fish, and even flour. Their natural food, how- 

 ever, in this larval stage, is vegetable matter and minute animals found in aquatic plants. 



When a week old, the young lobster has its first moult or casting of the skin, aud a 

 second when two weeks old. • After another week it moults again aud then the larval 

 state is at an end. From this time its habits resemble more the grown lobster, and the 

 large claws begin to develop aud the shell to harden. After another week the lobster is 

 completely developed. Another shelling process takes place, aud the new shell becomes 

 more and more like the colour of the natural lobster and increases in firmness. How 

 often they shell after this period, during the first year, is not ascertained ; neither is it 

 known how often they shell during each year till they arrive at maturity ; but as a 10 inch 

 lobster is reckoned to be seven years old, they must in the first year shell more than once 

 to reach that size. 



The following figures show the number of ova which Mr. Nielsen counted on 

 " berried " lobsters : — 



Size. No. of Ova. 



10 inches 18,000 



11 



11.! 

 12 



12i 



22,154 

 22,600 

 23,080 

 23,264 

 23,680 



Size. No. of Ova. 



13 inches 24,105 



13J " 24,606 



14 " 25.000 



14J " 25,260 



15 " 25,600 



The eight inch lobsters are not " berried." The European nine inch lobster carries 

 about 12,000 eggs. As a rule, in Newfoundland waters, lobsters are not mature under 

 10 inches. 



In closing this paper the writer wishes to point out the desirability of establishing a 

 Biological Station for the study of Ichthyology and Marine Biology in all their branches. 

 This is a work for the Dominion of Canada whose fishing interests are so extensive, but, 

 if established at some eligible locality on the shores of the Lower Provinces, such an 

 institution would equally benefit the great fisheries of Newfoundland, and that colony 

 might be expected to share in the expenses of its erection and working. The undertaking, 

 however, should be national, and must be sustained from the funds of the State, as the 

 whole community, directly or indirectly, would share in its benefits, and private liber- 

 ality in new countries could not be expected to maintain an in.stitution of this kind. 

 The scientific and practical should be so combined as to render it a Fishery School. It 

 would include a laboratory in which the structure and habits of all kinds of marine life 

 would be studied, especially the life, conditions, food, mode of propagation, movements, 

 etc., of such fishes as possess an economic value. Observations would be conducted, not 

 only on the fauna, but also on the flora of the sea, so as to improve and enlarge our Zoolo- 

 gical and Botanical sciences, and impart accurate information to the young who might 

 desire to investigate such subjects. Embryology would form a prominent feature at such 



