l8o TRANSACTIONS 



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duplex pump and twenty horse-power steam engine, draw salt 

 water from the bay, and a wharf running out to 20 ft. depth of 

 water, enables tugs to come alongside with supplies of lobster eggs 

 obtained by the hatchery officers at the canneries. The eggs, it 

 may be mentioned, are carried attached to the swimmerets in 

 bunches, under the body of the female lobster. Ripe and well- 

 developed eggs are selected, and are known by their paler 

 colour as compared with the deep green or black of the 

 newly extruded eggs. With a spoon, the hatchery operator 

 scrapes off most of the eggs, leaving some still adhering, 

 including some that are unavoidably crushed or burst. 

 Having visited several of the lobster canneries, and 

 picked out egg-bearing lobsters sufficient to give him an adquate 

 suppl}'- — the lobsters, of course, being alive and newly brought 

 in from the trapping grounds — the operator at once conveys the 

 eggs in buckets on board a tug to the hatchery, places them in 

 upright jars or vases, slightly wider than whitefish jars, where 

 they are kept rolling about by rapidly circulating sea water until 

 they hatch. At a temperature of 56° or 58°F, they may hatch 

 out in 24 hours ; but they frequently take fourteen or fifteen 

 days, if the temperature is lower and the eggs are not advanced 

 in development. At a temperature of 40° or 50° F. lobster eggs 

 take many months for the incubation process, but so favourable 

 are the conditions at the Bay View Hatchery, Caribou Harbour ; 

 that the annual operations are frequently over in five or six 

 weeks in May or June. The young fry are like little active 

 shrimps, swimming head foremost in contrast to the adult lobster, 

 and they are so cannibalistic that they must be planted at once. 

 They are conveyed in barrels on board a tug, each barrel having 

 a square lid cut out, at the side which is uppermost, for aeration, 

 and the young lobsters are lifted by scoops or dippers, and scatter- 

 ed in the surface waters 3 to 10 miles from land. The method 

 of scattering them by means of a hose pipe at the stern of the tug 

 was not successful, the delicate fry being injured. I^obster fry 

 are never found close inshore but are pelagic in habit, and 

 frequent the surface . of the sea many miles from land. The 

 methods in vogue at the Canadian I^obster Hatchery appear ad- 

 mirable, and should ensure in due time, beneficial results for the 

 lobster fisheries along the Atlantic coast. For the sake of clear- 

 ness a brief summary of some of the features of Fish-culture in 



