660 HISTOET AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



The soft shelled and smaller individuals are preferred, but in most places lobsters are now too 

 valuable or too rare to be used very extensively as bait. Some of the lobster fishermen, who also 

 engage in hook and line fishing, use the under sized, soft, or otherwise unmarketable ones for this 

 purpose, and a few traps are also often left down out of season for the taking of bait lobsters only. 

 Amateur fishing clubs, such as that at Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, frequently depend largely 

 upon lobsters for bait, and keep traps set for taking them, the smaller ones only being used and the 

 larger ones sold. On the northern part of the New England coast, as far south as Cape Cod, lob- 

 ster bait is favorably regarded for cod, hake, haddock, and sea perch ; and south of Cape Cod, 

 for cod, tautog, striped bass, sea-bass, scup, and bluefish. Old fishermen state that when rock cod 

 refuse to bite at a bait of soft-shell lobsters, they cannot be taken with any means. On the coast 

 of Maine, lobsters have sometimes been ground up and scattered upon the surface of the water to 

 attract schools of mackerel, and in the same region they are occasionally fed to eels confined in 

 ponds. For the latter purpose they are ground or broken into small fragments, and placed in 

 small cars, pierced with holes, through which the eels can pass in and out at will. They are also 

 used as bait in cunner traps at Cape Ann, Massachusetts. 



Considerable difference of opinion exists as to what constitutes the best lobsters for eating. 

 In most sea-port towns of the lobster region it will be observed that the inhabitants, as well as 

 the fishermen, select the smaller lobsters for their own use, while the larger ones are shipped 

 away to the markets and inland cities, where small lobsters find no sale. The fact that these 

 latter places demand only large lobsters, and pay well for them, is probably one of the principal 

 reasons why the smaller ones are mainly used at home, being, in reality, a cheaper grade. How- 

 ever, there is no question bat that a preference generally exists for small lobsters along the sea- 

 coast. In most markets there is no call for lobsters measuring less than about 10 inches in 

 length, and frequently the larger they are the more readily they are disposed of. The run of 

 lobsters at different seasons naturally influences the character of the demand, and in Boston the 

 summer supplies average larger in size than the winter, so that the people have become accustomed 

 to demand larger lobsters in summer than they can obtain in winter. It is natural to suppose that 

 the lobster, like many other animals, would be most desirable as food before it had attained too 

 large a size, but to what extent the flesh of the young and old differs does not appear to be known. 

 The very small ones, however, would not be economical to use, from the small amount of meat they 

 contain. 



It has been stated that one sex is sometimes preferred to the other, but the only possible differ- 

 ence that could exist between the sexes would be with respect to the mature ovaries or " sweet 

 bread" of the females. Capt. N. E. Atwood, in a paper published some fifteen years ago, relates 

 that at that time male lobsters were preferred in Boston and female lobsters in New York. His 

 paper was written in support of the statement that nine-tenths of the lobsters caught about Cape 

 Cod, whence the New York supplies were mainly obtained, were females, while the same proportion 

 from the " North shore," tributary to Boston, were males. This question has been more fully dis- 

 cussed in connection with the natural history. 



Unlike the common blue crab, soft-shell lobsters are not generally regarded as edible, their 

 flesh being described as thin and watery. They are, however, occasionally eaten, and are considered 

 to form an excellent bait. It is customary in most regions to throw them overboard as soon as 

 they are taken, unless they are in demand as bait, but even the slight handling to which they are 

 subjected in removing them from the traps is said generally to injure them beyond recovery, unless 

 the shell is somewhat hardened. Salt water pouds or parks have sometimes been used for stor- 

 ing soft lobsters awaiting the hardening of their shells, but this practice is not common. 



