THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 15 



Lawrence. I have inquired of Gaspe" whalers who arc in the habif of going aa far as Cape Harrison, 

 on the eoasl of Labrador, but they all toll me thai, they have never taken a lobster below St. Charles — 

 thai is, a few miles north of Chateau Bay. West of Chateau Bay, as I have said, they are found all 

 along the coast, bul not in paying quantities. Several attempts have been made to operate canneries on 

 this coast, but they have one after another been abandoned. The lobsters seem to give out suddenly. 

 The\ are all caught up when the traps are first set. Of course the water is too deep for any general 

 fishery, and it is only in shoal bays and harbors that traps can be used. 



Iii reply to a letter of inquiry from Dr. Wakeharu, Mr. P. M. McKenzie, one of 

 the chid' factors of the Hudson Bay Company, says that he lias been on the Labrador 

 coast and entrance of Hudson Straits tor fourteen years, and has "never seen a 

 lobster or heard of any being caught between Grady Harbor (longitude W. 50° 25', 

 latitude 53° 46') and Cape Chudleigh." He says farther, that he does not think they 

 occur between Grady Harbor and the straits of Belle Isle, but "all along the Gulf 

 from Seven Islands to St. Augustine there are a great many at certain points." 



Mr. W. H. Whitely, overseer of .fisheries at the straits, writes to the same effect: 



Lobsters are not found below [i. e., east of] the narrows of the straits of Belle Isle [the lowest 

 point, a place called Brodore Bay]. Some are found on the southern or Newfoundland side of the 

 straits. They are uot plenty at any place within 100 miles west of the north side of the straits of 

 Belle Isle, but a few are found in places sheltered from rough water and drifting ice. I have never 

 heard of any lobsters being seen at any point on the Labrador east of the straits. 



From the character and abundance of this testimony we may safely conclude that 

 the lobster is not found on the coast of Labrador very far beyond the straits of Belle 

 Isle, or not many miles north of Henley Harbor (about 52° north latitude). From the 

 straits northward the temperature is said to fall rapidly, owing to the arctic current 

 which flows south, and the presence of ice, which is carried along with it close to the 

 land. We should not, therefore, expect to meet with the lobster, except as a very rare 

 straggler, north of the straits. 



It is interesting to find, on the other hand, that Fabricius (63) iucludes the lobster 

 ( Cancer gammarus L.) in his Fauna Grumlandica. He is particular to state, however, 

 that he does so upon the authority of others, as he had never seen the lobster in 

 Greenland himself. He says that the lobster is found under the name of Pekkuk in 

 the Greenlandish dictionary. He had heard the natives distinguish the smaller 

 Squillas by the name of Pekkungoit, from a much larger form (Cancris), called Pek- 

 kuit or Pekkurksoit, and very similar to the "Gammari." This name may have been 

 derived from the Esquimaux of the southern Labrador coast or from Iceland, where, 

 according to Molar's "Islandske Naturhistorie," the European lobster "has been found 

 by Dr. Poulsen in Grondevig, but it does not extend to Greenlaud or Spitsbergen" (20). 



De Kay, writing in 1844, remarks that while the lobster was taken in compara- 

 tively small quantities on the New Jersey coast, "two years after building the break- 

 water in Delaware Bay, lobsters made their appearance there in great quantities." 

 He also says that in about the year 1814 General Pinckney "caused a car full of 

 lobsters to be emptied into the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. A few of their 

 survivors, or their descendants, were captured about ten years since, but, as I am 

 informed, they were the last." (51, p. 25.) 



The stonework of Delaware" Breakwater, says Bathbun (155), may be considered 

 the southern bouiuhiry of the lobster, although he has recorded several instances of 

 its occurrence south of this point. Thus it has been said that lobsters have been seen 

 along the beach in the surf near Indian Biver Inlet, Delaware. Two or three have 



