MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT POliT EltlX. 25 



propensity of tlie berried lobsters to shed their ripening- 

 eggs cannot be obviated when they are confined in small 

 tanks. The same conditions appear to apply to the 

 health of the larvae. (Jf 1,400 larvae placed in the large 

 concrete tank in the hatchery only sis reached the 

 lobsterling stage ; while a considerable percentage of 

 900 placed in the spawning pond were seen 

 swimming at or near the surface until the third (^and in 

 a few cases the fourth) larval stage was reached. Many 

 of these would probably have reached the lobsterling 



Fig. 10. — The Hatching Tanks when-used for rearing lobsters 

 in the Summer. 



stage but for the presence of the fish in the pond. It is, 

 no doubt, probable also that the abnormally high 

 temperature to which the water in the pond was raised 

 on many days in July and August by the exceptional 

 heat of the sun this summer had a prejudicial effect on 

 the lobster larvae. It is a curious fact that all our 

 experiments in lobster rearing in this and past years 

 have afforded strikino- ilhistrations of the ' survival of 



