THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 201 
THURSDAY, MAY 15TH. 
The President called the meeting to order at 10 o’clock A. M., 
and declared the reading of papers to be in order. 
NOTES ON THE DECREASE OF LOBSTERS. 
BY RICHARD RATHBUN. 
One of the most important of our seacoast fisheries is that 
afforded by the American lobster, the Homarus americanus of na- 
turalists. This interesting crustacean, the largest of its kind in 
North American waters, ranges from Labrador in the North to 
Delaware in the South; but is most abundant and most sought 
for along New England and the southernmost of the British 
coast provinces. 
Its great abundance and rare flavor are not unfrequently men- 
tioned in the early annals of New England, and it probably 
formed an important element in the food supply of the seacoast 
inhabitants of colonial times. As a separate and distinct in- 
dustry, however, the lobster fishery does not date back much, if 
any, beyond the beginning of the present century, and it ap- 
pears to have been first developed on the Massachusetts coast, 
in the region of Cape Cod and Boston, although some fishing 
was done as early as 1810 among the Elizabeth Islands and on 
the coast of Connecticut. Strangely enough, this industry was 
not extended to the coast of Maine, where it subsequently at- 
tained its greatest proportions, until about 1840. Concerning 
the history of this unique fishery, but few authentic records of 
any kind exist, nor was any attempt ever made to estimate its 
