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the permitted wholesale destruction of the lobster's spawn. 

 Comparing matters with the law as it now exists, with 

 relation to the trout and salmon fisheries, the foregoing 

 regulations, if enforced, would, in fact, leave us in precisely the 

 same position as obtained with these important industries 

 prior to the introduction of the artificial system of cultivat- 

 ing and protecting the eggs and fry of the Salmonidae. To 

 all who have given attention to this subject it is a well-known 

 circumstance that, but for the introduction of the artificial 

 system of culture on the part of patriotic pisciculturists, 

 our lakes and rivers would never have recovered from the 

 exhausted condition to which they had been reduced by 

 overfishing. Now, what has been achieved in connection 

 with the Salmonidae I am prepared to maintain is capable 

 of realization with the lobster tribe. That lobsters may be 

 artificially cultivated from the egg I have already proved 

 by practical experiment on a small scale, and to demon- 

 strate that the same principles applied upon a whole- 

 sale one might be utilized for re-stocking our exhausted 

 inshore fisheries is the chief object of this communication. 



In order to place you fully in possession of the circum- 

 stances and capabilities of the subject introduced, it is 

 desirable that I should give you a brief sketch of the early 

 life-history of the lobster. As is familiar to all present, 

 the eggs of the lobster, upon extrusion, are attached in 

 masses to the filamentous appendages, or " swimmarets " of 

 the abdomen, or so-called " tail " of the lobster, and consti- 

 tute what is popularly named the " Berry." The amount 

 of eggs extruded by the female fish, it is singular to ob- 

 serve, coincides remarkably with those of the salmon, num- 

 bering from 20,000 to 30,000. Attached beneath the* 

 parent's abdomen, in the form of " berry," the eggs remain 

 for a period of three or four months, and then the young 



