22 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



migration, it is evident that regions once depleted would in time be restored naturally 

 by accessions from neighboring sections. This does not appear to be the case, and 

 we may look upon each geographical region on the coast as inhabited by a distinct 

 school of lobsters, which hold their ground fairly constantly, so that if their numbers 

 are depleted by overfishing they would under natural conditions be stocked but 

 slowly. If this argument is sound, and it certainly looks as if the Cape Cod region 

 were a case in point, it must follow that the young are not widely distributed, but 1 

 can hardly accept this as probable. It would seem as if the young, which, to be sure, 

 have little powers of locomotion, would always tend to find an extra local distribution 

 by tides, winds, and currents. Furthermore, if this were the case, it would follow that 

 restocking under natural conditions is a slow process at best. Writing iu December, 

 1885, Rathbun says (158): 



The Cape Cod lobster fishery has been at a low standing for many years and, although but few men 

 have engaged in the fishery of that region for a long time, there are, as yet, no signs of improvement. 



That lobsters move up and down the coast to some extent is inevitable, although 

 such a migratiou may be regarded as accidental rather than deliberate or instinctive. 

 They may also return suddenly, as some believe, to places where they have not been 

 seen for years. Thus a correspondent wrote to the United States Fish Commission 

 from South Amboy, New Jersey, February 15, 1880, that lobsters had made an appear- 

 ance there after an absence of about twelve years. "I discovered them late in October, 

 and captured a hundred before the cold weather set in, after which I could not catch 

 any." (Bull. IT. S. F. C, vol. VI, p. 407.) Statements of this kind must, however, be 

 received with much caution, since what appears to be a sudden arrival may be due 

 to desultory observations. 



The subject of the schooling of lobsters is one about which it is very difficult to 

 get accurate information, and we need to use much caution in drawing conclusions 

 from too slender data. The only region which I have been able to study for a number 

 of consecutive seasons is that about Woods Hole, Massachusetts, including Marthas 

 Vineyard, No Man's Land, and the Elizabeth Islands, and I will give in some detail 

 the observations which I have been able to make in this limited area, believing that 

 they will shed some light upon this interesting and perplexing question. 



The fishermen of a part of this region set their traps from the last of April to the 

 middle or last of June on rocky bottom in the vicinity of Gay Head and No Man's 

 Land, while from the middle or last of June until September they generally fish upon 

 the sandy bottom of the Sound in much shallower water. A few lobstermen fish 

 during September upon the rocks. They distinguish "rock lobsters" from what they 

 call "school lobsters." The latter are also called "sand" or "June lobsters," and are 

 considered more migratory than the "rock lobsters" or "ground-holders." "School 

 lobsters" are most abundant in summer from the middle of June to the middle or last 

 of July on a sandy bottom in Vineyard Sound in 5 to 10 fathoms of water. 



On June 28, 1890, 1 found the fishermen at Menemsha 1 setting their traps both off 

 Gay Head on a rock bottom and on the sandy bottom of the Sound. The difference 



'Menemsha is a small fishing settlement iu the town of Chilmark, Marthas Vinevard, about 2 

 miles due east from Gay Head, on Vineyard Sound. Gay Head, the remarkable promontory forming 

 the western extremity of Marthas Vineyard, is 14 miles southwest of Woods Hole Harbor aud 6 miles 

 north of No Man's Land. 



