16 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES PISH COMMISSION. 



been recorded at Johnstown, in the northeastern corner of Virginia, "and in October 

 1884, the United States Fish Commission steamer Albatross obtained a single specimen 

 of good size off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, from a depth of about 30 fathoms, by 

 means of the beam trawl" (155). Coues (49) also records the capture of a single lobster 

 at Beaufort, North Carolina, in the summer of 1870. 



Dr. Wakeham writes that lobsters are abundant around the island of Anticosti 

 and that a large number of canneries have been in operation on this island for some 

 years. He says that lobsters are more abundant on the southern side of the island, 

 and concludes that this is "due to the fact that the water deepens gradually on the 

 southern side, while on the north side of the island you go abruptly into deep water. 

 The lobsters taken at Anticosti and on the north shore of the Gulf are of large size. 

 This may be explained by the fact that they have not been overfished to the same 

 extent there as elsewhere. At any rate we do not find any small lobsters in the traps. 

 The largest lobster that I have seen taken on the north shore weighed 18 pounds." 



Sai'S (176) considers it remarkable that lobsters on the southern coast of Norway 

 never become as large as those farther north. It seems to me that the explanation of 

 this fact is simple, and applies to both European and American species. The northern 

 parts of the range of the lobster have been the last to be fished, and consequently the 

 average size is greater than in the south, where the fishery began. 



The bathymetrical range varies with the season and is influenced largely by the 

 temperature of the water. It may be also governed in some measure by the abun- 

 dance of food and by the reproductive and molting periods. 



Lobsters are occasionally seen close to the shore in very shallow water and they 

 are sometimes even stranded on the beach. This was the case with the large lobster, 

 weighing upward of 20 pounds, the mutilated shell of which is now preserved in 

 the land office of Boothbay Harbor Village, Maine (see p. 114). This great lobster 

 was discovered on the beach of Boothbay Harbor, at low tide, about twenty-five years 

 ago. 



Professor Verrill related to me his experience with a large lobster at Grand 

 Manan, Maine, in 1859. This lobster, which he thinks must have weighed at least 

 20 pounds, had established himself so securely under the projecting side of a large 

 bowlder that it was not an easy matter to dislodge him, even at low tide ; but with the 

 aid of a boat-hook this giant was at last drawn out and captured. When it was finally 

 taken to the settlement it attracted very little interest, the fishermen saying that it 

 was worth only a penny, 2 cents being then the regular price of lobsters, whether of 

 5 or 20 pounds weight. In those days lobsters were never weighed and sold by the 

 pound. 



Lobsters, on the other hand, stray out to great distances from the shore, and have 

 been recorded on the fishing-banks of Nova Scotia "from the fishing-banks and ledges 

 of the Gulf of Maine, such as Jeffrey's Ledge and Cashe's Ledge, and from the more 

 southern offshore banks. They have also been taken from the stomachs of cod caught 

 on George's Banks." (Bathbun, 155, p. 787.) 



Lobsters are also sometimes driven by severe storms on the beach, where they 

 perish in great numbers. In March, 1888, thousands of lobsters were washed ashore 

 on the south side of Marthas Vineyard during a south and southwest gale. 



