20 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



Mr. Bumpus: I think that wherever you find lobsters you 

 will find lobsters breeding. 



Mr. Bowers: I was told last week by a fisherman on a very 

 small pond, that he was positive lobsters deposited their eggs 

 right in the pond, and that they hatched and remained right 

 there. 



Mr. Bumpus: The lobster does not deposit the eggs except 

 upon herself. They are attached to the hairs upon the lower 

 part of the abdomen and carried around by her and if those 

 eggs drop off they must unquestionably perish. The female 

 lobster keeps the water lapping back and forth all the time 

 which keeps the eggs aerated. 



Mr. Bowers: Do you think it is possible that in this small 

 pond less than a mile long, perhaps half a mile wide, with an 

 inlet from the sea, that lobsters will hatch and propagate there 

 and not leave till they mature? 



Mr. Bumpus : I think it is possible they might remain there, 

 but I think it is probable that they would not, for this reason: 

 this spring I had a little pond cleared out at some expense 

 and in that pond we provided a screen, so that we could allow 

 the tide to rush in at a certain time and then slowly run out 

 so that there would not be a strong current — and I found 

 that the young lobsters had a tendency to follow the current. 

 It was practically impossible to' keep them in. We had 

 several thousand in this little pond; in a couple of days 

 we could not find any except a few dead ones, and the open- 

 ing from the pond is very small, still those little lobsters would 

 escape. I know they did because I had a trap outside the 

 pond and caught them. 



Mr. Bowers: Is the bottom of this pond all sand? 



Mr. Bumpus: It was pretty clean gravel because we made 

 it so. 



Mr. Bowers: The pond I refer to abounded in ledges. 



President Peabody: Any further discussion of this paper? 

 If not Mr. F. N. Clark, Superintendent of the United States 

 Fish Commission, of Northville, Michigan^ will read his paper. 



