90 



THE AQUARIUM, JANUARY, 1894. 



those laid after the middle of July, in 

 Long Island Sound, will not hatch the 

 same year, but eggs taken late last year 

 afford a chance to give some figures 

 which may be of value. On August 11, 

 1893, we took from twelve lobsters 

 forty-three fluid ounces of eggs, which 

 by actual count measured 6,000 to the 

 ounce, and on August 16 took from 

 thirty-three lobsters ninety-four ounces, 

 making in all 822,000 eggs or 18,266 

 per lobster. We could not keep these 

 eggs all winter, and they showed only 

 slight development a month later. 



" No work that has occupied the at- 

 tention of fishculturists compares with 

 what may be done in replacing the lob- 

 ster industry on the footing which it 

 held in comparison to the population of 

 the country forty years ago. Then a 

 lobster of five pounds was a small one, 

 now one-half of that weight is large, 

 and the numbers have decreased in even 

 greater proportion. The only things 

 that approach the importance of lobster 

 culture in economic importance is the 

 hatching of white-fish on the great 

 lakes, and the shad in the rivers; the 

 trout and salmon will compare with the 

 lobster in value, if the latter can be in- 

 creased as the former have been. 



'^ It is possible to bring this neglected 

 br inch of fishculture to a point where 

 it will, on the seaboard, at least, over- 

 shadow the other branches in which we 

 have been engaged. 



" After making notes about lobsters 

 carrying their eggs all winter, when 

 laid after July 15, 1 received the follow- 

 ing letter from Prof. Samuel Garman, 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge, Mass., dated August 30, 

 1892: 



Mr. Fred. Mather : 



Dear Sir : I am very glad to get your re- 

 ports and to know that you are pushing in- 



quiries into life-history of the lobster and the 

 fishes which you propagate. I take pleasure 

 in sending you a little report of my own on 

 the lobster. Very truly, 



S. Garman. 



• " To say just how I rejoiced to find 

 that Prof. Garman's studies confirmed 

 my own crude observations is beyond my 

 power. It is pleasant to have one's ideas 

 confirmed by any one who has studied 

 the subject more than he has ; but I 

 will quote Prof. Carman's paper entire: 



REPORT ON THE LOBSTER. 



by s. garman. 



Museum of Comparative Zoology, ) 

 Cambridge, Mass., December 17, 1891. f 



The Hon. E. A. Brackett, Massachusetts State 

 Fishery Commissioner. 



Sir : Yours, with inquiries regarding the 

 conclusions reached in the study of the lobster, 

 is at hand While unavoidable delay in the 

 drawings prevents placing the complete mat- 

 ter in your hands, it is quite possible to give 

 you in a few words a general idea of the re- 

 sults and their bearings, such as will no doubt 

 sufficiently answer your questions. 



According to the arrangements made, some 

 of the eggs from berried lobsters kept for the 

 purpose were sent me at regular intervals 

 through an entire year. These eggs were at 

 once examined to note their progress in de- 

 velopment, and they were then preserved by 

 various methods for future studies and com- 

 parisons. After their young were hatched 

 the females themselves were dissected, to ob- 

 serve the condition of their ovaries, and to de- 

 termine the time when another lot of eggs 

 might have been expected from them. As 

 our work began in midwinter it was necessary 

 to follow certain specimens up to the hatch- 

 ing, and then to take others to complete the 

 series from the laying. Eggs supplied me as 

 freshly laid were so far advanced as to indi- 

 cate that fertilization had taken place before 

 they were placed under the tail of the lobster 

 bearing them. The time and process of fer- 

 tilization has not been discovered ; but in all 

 likelihood the marine lobster docs not differ 

 greatly in these respects from its fresh water 

 relatives, the cray-fishes. In the case of the 

 latter the male seeks the female some time be- 



