REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 45 
and forth in the current, giving a gentle motion to the water, and 
this motion appears to be very essential to the well-being of the 
larvee, for without it they settle to the bottom and slowly die. 
While the larvee are in the scrim enclosures, they may be fed 
with the lobster liver, but this is likely to pollute the water, 
and, gathering on the upper portion of the scrim, rapidly decays. 
It is here that the scrim-bags again prove their fitness for this 
work, for it is a very simple matter to “purse” them up, and 
gently lead the young into a clean bag, without handling them, 
g; 
and without injuring them in any way. The frequent change 
from soiled to clean scrim enclosures appears to be essential to 
the well-being of the young, and is to be recommended for reasons 
of economy; since the scrim rots if allowed to remain a long time 
in the sea-water. 
Later in the season we found that the older fry appeared to 
flourish better on living than on prepared food. The lying food 
is doubtless much more natural for them than the finely sub- 
divided liver, and it is certainly much more cleanly. It would of 
course be very satisfactory if we could find the young of some fish 
which we could raise in the hatchery, and then liberate in the 
scrim-bags, the young lobsters catching such as they desired and 
leaving the others alive until they too were needed for food. In 
this connection, the young’of the goose-fish gave us some encour- 
agement, but they are colored with black blotches, and this color 
seems not to attract the young lobsters. This indifference of the 
young lobsters was a disappointment, for the spawn of the goose- 
fish can be gotten by the tub-ful. Itreadily hatches in the labor- 
atory, and the young flourish in the scrim enclosures. 
But it is not a difficult matter, although a somewhat irksome 
task, to skim a sufficient quantity of copepods and other surface 
material to provide an abundance of natural food for the young 
lobsters. Ata certain time of the day, or at certain times of the 
tide, the plankton (the small floating organisms of the ocean) 
come to the surface, and a boy with a skimming-net and a boat 
ean soon collect enough to feed thousands of fry. The net is sim- 
