678 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



chiefly duriug the month of July. It certainly happens that some 

 change later, but by far the larger number seem to change during that 

 mouth. 



I did not succeed in obtaining lobsters measuring from one inch to a 

 finger's length, and as far as I know none are found in any museum. 

 I consider it as certain, however, that the lobster keeps near the coast 

 also during this stage of its development. The reason why they can- 

 not be caught with the bottom-scraper is partly their quick movements 

 and partly the circumstance that they hide among the algiie on the bot- 

 tom of the sea. The fact that they cannot be caught in the common 

 lobster-baskets is easily explained by these having such wide openings. 



It is a remarkable fact that the lobsters on our southern coast never 

 get as large as those farther north. I have never seen an unusually 

 large specimen among the many lobsters which I examined at the dif- 

 ferent fishing-stations. The lobsters which are occasionally caught 

 farther north are generally much larger, and to judge from their appear- 

 ance much older. At Floro I once saw a lobster which was not much 

 smaller than the immense specimen in the Bergen Museum. This speci- 

 men, as far as I remember, comes from a still more northerly point of 

 our western coast. 



As to its geographical distribution, the lobster is more of a southern 

 animal than its cousin, the crab, which is found all along our coast as 

 far as Vadso. Its northern boundary is the polar circle. It is found 

 very generally along the coasts of tlie North Sea and on all the At- 

 lantic coasts of Europe, and even goes into the Mediterranean, where, 

 however, it is not found in great numbers. The lobster found on the 

 eastern coast of North America belongs to a difl'erent species, of which 

 I convinced myself by examining its young ones, a lecture of which I 

 have given in the above mentioned work. 



From these scientific remarks I return to the practical side of the 

 question. The principle which has been followed in framing laws for 

 the better production of the lobster is the same which forms the basis 

 of all similar protective laws, viz, a desire to let the propagating of the 

 lobster go on as undisturbedly as j)ossible. If one considers what an 

 enormous quantity of roe a grown female lobster can carry under her 

 tail, and also that this roe becomes impregnated, and that, consequently, 

 every little grain of roe develops into a lobster, it is very natural to 

 suppose that if only a sufficient number of female lobsters could hatch 

 their young ones undisturbedly, ample compensation would be made for 

 the number of grown lobsters caught every year. It was also very 

 natural to suppose that the decrease in the quantity of lobsters, which 

 had been observed in various places, was caused by catching grown 

 female lobsters during the hatching-season. With other fisheries the 

 use of certain fishing-implements has proved hurtful to the fish ; but 

 the implements employed in lobster-fishing are of such a kind as to pre- 

 clude this possibility. 



