16 INLAND FISHERIES COMMISSIONERS REPORT. 



lowed their example. The following letter was received from Prof. 

 Baird the past summer: 



" I enclose you herewith a letter just received from Mr. Wilcox, 

 the Chairman of the Boston Fish Bureau. Will it not be very de- 

 sirable to have Ehode Island enact a law in i-egard to the limitations 

 of the size, of lobsters, simply doing what Maine, Massachusetts and 

 New York have done. Their standard is 11-J inches. You might sug- 

 gest the same for Ehode Island." 



The letter referred to from Mr. Wilcox says: 



''After leaving you this noon, I took a ramble around the fish 

 stands [at Newport] and was reminded I was out of Massachusetts by 

 seeing the fishermen bring in lobsters not any over six or eight iuches 

 long, and they called them large. I presume Ehode Island has no 

 law as to size, but I am sure they need one, for such small specimens 

 of lobsters I have never seen in any market." 



The lobster law of Massachusetts is as follows: 



Section 1. Whoever sells, or offers for sale, or lias in his possession with in- 

 tent to sell, either directly or indirectly, any lobsters less than ten and one-half 

 inches in length, measuring from one extreme of the body to the other, exclusive 

 of claws or feelers, shall forfeit for every such lobster five dollars. 



Sec. 3. All forfeitures accruing under this act shall be paid one-half to the 

 person making the complaint, and one-half to the city or town where the offence 

 is committed. 



Sec. 3. This act shall take effect on the first day of May, 1874. 



This act is very well as far as it goes, but does not cover the whole 

 ground by any means. The capture of small lobsters has gone on in 

 Ehode Island since the first lobster pot was put in Ehode Island 

 waters, the larger ones sent to market, and the smaller used for bait 

 for black fish. Let us see what the Ehode Island law amounts to, 

 Sec. 8 of Chapter 134: " If any person not at the time an inhabitant 

 of this State shall set, or keep, or cause to be set or kept, within any of 

 the waters, or upon or within three miles of any shore of this State more 

 than two pots or nets for the catching of lobsters at any one time, he 

 shall forfeit twenty dollars for each offence." Sec. 9: "If any per- 

 son shall lift or raise any pot or net set for the catching of lobsters, 



