70 SCIENCE 
to chapter VIII., with fundamental additions 
to our knowledge of the regenerative process, 
and embodying the excellent work of Emmel; 
to chapter XI., bringing in an almost new 
section concerning the behavior of the lobster; 
and, finally, to chapter XII. (and also to part 
of chapter I.) discussing the economic impor- 
tance of the lobster fisheries in this country 
and considering means of preservation and 
propagation. 
In this last chapter, Herrick frankly con- 
siders the question, “ What is the matter with 
the lobster?” and discusses very fully the 
pros and cons of all methods, legislative and 
otherwise, suggested for its protection. ‘“ Un- 
fortunately for many years,” says the author, 
“we have watched this race decline until some 
have even thought that commercial extinction, 
and that not far remote, awaited the fishery. 
. . + If this is primarily a scientific question, 
the zoological history of the animal should 
give us the answer... . The main biological 
facts . . . are now well in hand, and excuse 
ean no longer be offered on the ground of 
ignorance.” 
After showing by means of convincing sta- 
tistics the fact of the decline in the lobster 
fishery in this country, Herrick considers the 
cause. 
More lobsters haye been taken from the sea 
than Nature has been able to replace by the slow 
process of reproduction and growth. In other 
words, man has been continually gathering in the 
wild crop, but has bestowed no effective care upon 
the seed. The demands of a continent steadily 
increasing in wealth and in population have stim- 
ulated the efforts of dealers and fishermen, who 
must work harder each year for what they receive 
in order to keep up the waning supply. The nat- 
ural result has followed, namely, a scarcity of 
numbers and a decrease in the size of the animals 
caught, with steadily advancing prices paid for 
the product. This is precisely what we should 
expect, had we based our judgment upon any 
sound principles of common sense and human 
economy, not to speak of a knowledge of the mode 
of life and general natural history of the animal 
in question. 
Herrick shows that all measures which have 
heretofore been adopted in this country to 
[N.S. Vou, XXXV. No. 889 
check the decline have failed, and it can be 
concluded that “either the laws are defective 
or the means of enforcing them are insuffi- 
cient.” Since a closed season for any animal, 
to have protective value, must correspond 
with the breeding season, and since this is 
impossible in the case of the female lobster 
(which spawns only once in two years and 
carries its eggs externally for about a year), 
closed seasons are not recommended as a pos- 
sible means of improving conditions. 
Moreover, legislation calculated to protect 
the “berried” lobsters has not been success- 
ful, because many fishermen evade the law by 
combing the eggs from the abdomen of the 
female. In addition, Herrick clearly points 
out that, even if an egeg-lobster law could be 
enforced, the protection aimed at must neces- 
sarily be reduced by one half, since the adult 
females lay eggs but once in two years, and 
therefore, at any given time only one half of 
them would be “in berry.” The plan some- 
times followed, of enclosing the “ berried” 
females in crates and allowing the eggs to 
hatch naturally, Herrick thinks commendable, 
but inadequate for the preservation of the 
fishery. 
As to the gauge law, while admitting that 
it has scarcely ever been thoroughly enforced 
in any locality, Herrick also believes this to 
be inadequate, whether short lobsters are de- 
stroyed or not. 
First, by legalizing the capture of the large 
adult animals, above 103 inches in length, we have 
destroyed the chief egg-producers, upon which the 
race in this animal, as in every other, must depend. 
Second, as supporting or contributory causes, some 
of us now, like others in the past, have entertained 
false ideas upon the biology of this animal, espe- 
cially (a) upon the value of the eggs or their rate 
of survival, that is, the ratio between the eggs and 
the adults which come from them, and (b) of the 
true significance to the fisheries of the breeding 
habits, especially in regard to time and frequency 
of spawning and the fosterage or carriage of the 
eggs. Our practises have been neither logical nor 
consistent, for, while we have overestimated the 
amount of gold in the egg, we have killed the 
‘*goose’? which lays it. We have thought the 
eggs so valuable that we have been to great 
