300 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



Just how the eggs are impregnated is not known. It 

 is said that the milt is placed near the oviduct some time 

 before the extrusion of the eggs, and that they are fer- 

 tilized by passing over it. Of this I know nothing, and 

 merely insert this paragraph to show that this question 

 was not overlooked. The sexes of lobsters can easily 

 be distinguished without the presence of eggs. When 

 the pairing takes place and how it is performed no man 

 knows. A study of the reproductive organs has devel- 

 oped a theory, and there we stop. 



The increase of population has naturally increased 

 the consumption of lobsters, and the great decrease in 

 the size of this crustacean is an evidence that they are 

 slow of growth, and the marketable lobster of to-day, 

 weighing from one to two pounds, may be from four 

 to six years old, possibly more. In all these estimates 

 of weights a fairly plump, well-fed lobster is meant, 

 and not one that would be rejected by the housewife as 

 not worth picking the meat from, for she has learned 

 to weigh them in her hand, and of several of the same 

 size, to choose the heaviest. 



They are hatched in jars, and swim at once. They 

 are in a larval state at first, and moult three times be- 

 fore they are perfect and get the big claws. It is when 

 it moults, and is soft, that his fellows devour him. In 

 a natural state the youthful Homarus would seek shel- 

 ter for this operation, hence we must plant them at once, 

 or we might have only one fat fellow left, who, like 

 Gilbert's mariner, could say : 



"O, I am the cook and the captain bold, 

 And the mate of the Nancy brig; 



The bo'sun tight, 



And the midshipmite, 



And the crew of the captain's gig." 



