676 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iu wait for its prey. During summer and part of autumn the lobster 

 goes on higher bottoms in the bays and inlets, and is then frequently 

 caught quite near the coast among the algse at a depth of less than a 

 fathom. Toward winter it again retires into the deep; and still later in 

 the season it has almost entirely disappeared from those places where it 

 was quite common during summer. Occasionally, however, it is, even 

 in the middle of winter, found in deep water, and I have reason to be- 

 lieve that the lobster never leaves our coasts entirely, but considers 

 it as its proper home. 



As may be judged from its powerful claws, the lobster is a greedy 

 animal of prey, which is not satisfied with small marine animals, but 

 occasionally attacks all kinds of small fish which are unfortunate enough 

 to come withiu its reach. The bait used for catching lobsters consists 

 exclusively of fish, principally small codfish and herrings. These must, 

 however, be tolerably fresh ; as soon as they begin to get old the lobster 

 leaves them to his cousins, the crabs, which are less fastidious in their 

 taste, and they enter the baskets in great quantities. 



The lobster is cautious and cunning. It never pursues its prey openly, 

 but either endeavors to surprise it, in which it is greatly aided by its 

 very highly-developed sense of smelling, or waits patiently among the 

 algae till some marine animal comes within reach of its claws. I have 

 observed several times with what cautiousness and evident distrust the 

 lobster, attracted by the bait, has gone round the traps and examined 

 them several times on all sides before it has gone in. Only when it is 

 very hungry, as is especially the case later in summer after the spawn- 

 ing and changing of shell is over, it is less cautious and will enter the 

 traps more readily. 



The lobster is best and fattest in spring and early summer, while later 

 in summer and autumn it gets thin, from which cause the Englishmen 

 will not take it then. 



The propagating of the lobster does not seem to be strictly confined to 

 a certain season of the year, as lobsters with roe may be found nearly 

 all the year round. But the rule seems to be that the development of 

 the young goes on during the summer months from the beginning of 

 July till the early part of September. The more developed roe can easily 

 be distinguished by its lighter color and partly also by the larger size of 

 the grains. A closer examination shows distinctly in every grain of roe 

 two dark spots which are the eyes of the embryo. The more distinct 

 these spots are the more developed is the embryo. When its develop- 

 ment is comi)lete, the egg-shell bursts, and the young lobsters come out. 

 These are in the beginning very helpless and sink to the bottom, where 

 within a very short time they undergo their first change of skin ; soon 

 afterward the swimming apparatus, which has so far been surrounded 

 by skin, begins to work, and the young lobsters soon gambol about in 

 the water, and come up to the surface, where they remain during the 

 whole time of their further development. 



