REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. af 
contact with food, but does not protect them from their enemies ; 
indeed, as they have no sense of fear and are very conspicuous in 
the water, they fall prey to all sorts of fishes and shrimp, and 
even to their own brethren. | 
They swim sometimes at the surface of the water, but again show 
a tendency to sink to lower depths. Undoubtedly the movements 
of the lobster fry are affected by the light, and perhaps also by 
the temperature, but the nature and extent of these disturbances 
are yet to be learned. 
From the practical point of view a great deal more depends 
upon the understanding of their habits and the effect of tempera- 
ture and light upon them than would at first appear. Indeed, one 
of the most serious difficulties, if not the most serious one, in the 
rearing of the young is that of adapting the apparatus to the 
peculiarities of the swimming habit. 
What has been said above applies to the first, second, and third 
_ stages of the young lobster. When the skin has been shed the 
third time and the lobsters have entered the fourth stage, there is 
immediately an almost miraculous change in their habits. In 
this stage they become at once adapted to life on the bottom. 
They tend to quit their swimming habits, except for the purpose 
of changing their position, capturing prey, etc. They crawl over 
the bottom, hide under shells and sea-weed, and, if these objects 
cannot be found, they even burrow in the sand. For the first 
time the sense of fear is evinced, and they retreat from danger; 
there is a purpose and direction in their activities which was not 
apparent in the three earlier stages. 
It should not be inferred that they lose the power of swimming 
—this is not lost for months—but the swimming is now for the 
‘purpose of going from place to place, or for retreating from danger, 
not merely to keep them afloat. 
The moulting, or shedding the skin, first takes place when 
the lobster is about three days old, is repeated twice during the 
first two weeks, and continues with longer and longer intervals 
throughout life. In the first moults, as in the succeeding ones, 
