REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 51 
year and a half, but the later growth is at present merely a matter 
of conjecture. It would seem that the length of nine inches would 
not usually be attained before the third year. And it is practi- 
cally certain that the variation in growth is so great that it will 
never be possible to tell the age of a large lobster from its length. 
In conclusion, we may say that although the experiments in 
lobster-culture at Wickford have been carried on only two sea- 
sons, they yielded satisfactory results and have solved some of 
the problems of fundamental importance in lobster-propagation. 
These results would, we believe, warrant attempts at lobster-cul- 
ture on a considerably larger scale and further investigation of 
some of the questions which are still obscure. 
X. THe EFrorts oF THE COMMISSION TO PREVENT THE ILLEGAL 
TAKING OF SHORT LOBSTERS. 
At the January session of the General Assembly, 1901, your 
honorable body passed the following act: 
AN ACT FOR THE BETTER PROTECTION OF THE LOBSTER 
FISHERIES. 
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows : 
SECTION 1. Every person who catches, takes, or has in his possession 
any lobster less than nine inches in length, measuring from one extreme 
of the body to the other, exclusive of claws and feelers, or any female lob- 
ster bearing eggs or from which the eggs have been brushed, shall forfeit 
for every such lobster five dollars, one-half thereof to the use of the com- 
plainant and one-half thereof to the use of the state; but a person catch- 
ing or taking any such lobster and immediately returning the same alive 
to the water from which taken shall not be subject to such penalty. 
Stc. 2. All lobster pots, cars, and other contrivances used for the 
catching or keeping of lobsters shall be plainly marked with the name or 
names of the owner or owners. And every person who shall not have his 
lobster pots, cars, and other ¢ontrivances so marked shall be fined twenty 
dollars and be imprisoned not more than thirty days for each such offence. 
Sec. 3. There shall be between the fifteenth day of November and the 
fifteenth day of April next succeeding a close time, during which time it 
