78 LOBSTERS. 



boring molluscs, sponges, worms, &c. We will assume that 16 millions 

 survived and underwent growth. 



The average weight of the dry organic substance (excluding that 

 of the shell) of one of the stunted mussels If in hes in length was 0.598 

 gram. The average weight of dry organic substance in one of the same 

 mussels of 2| inches in length after transplantation and growth (also 

 excluding the shell) was 1-311 gram. Therefore the average gain in 

 dry organic substance was 0'713 gram per mussel, about 150 per cent. 

 This weight will obviously vary with the conditions of the shellfish, i.e., 

 with regard to spawning. 



This represents the growth during a period of about eight months. 

 Probably this period (April -November) represents the principal grow- 

 ing period of the year, but nevertheless there was probably some 

 growth also during the winter months. The area of Ringhole is 25 

 acres. Now calculating the gain on 16 millions of mussels we find that 

 the productivity of Ringhole in dry organic substance was 9 cwts. 

 per acre (11| tons in all). I do not doubt that this is a minimum 

 estimate." 



Similarly, increases in size and weight also follow transplanta- 

 tions in the vegetable world from unfavourable to favourable 

 conditions, as we know. Hence I venture to suggest the fact 

 that the American lobster is on an average now larger than 

 the English, is not attributable to its being an originally 

 larger species, any more than its Cod fish are, but to one, or 

 some, or all of the causes to which I have referred, i.e., the 

 fewer number of years the fisheries have been exploited, the 

 possibly greater discretion and more systematic supervision 

 of its capture, and the absence of overcrowding, or the greater 

 abundance of food available per unit.* 



* Since writing those suggestions I have been fortunately able to 

 acquire Dr. F. H. Herri ck's exhaustive and standard book on " The 

 American Lobster," which forms the first 252 pages of " The Bulletin 

 of the U.S. Fish Commission " for 1895, in which he says : 



(a) There are many unreliable, and some amusing, stories, written, 

 nevertheless, in all good faith, by European writers upon the large size 

 of European lobsters, the most amazing of \vhich is contained in 

 Olaus Magnus' book published in Rome in 1555, in which he says 



