Chapter I.— HABITS AND ENVIRONMENT. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE LOBSTER. 



The American lobster inhabits the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean from 

 Labrador to Delaware, and occurs in depths of from less tban 1 to more than 100 

 fathoms. It is thus confined to a strip of the Atlantic Ocean about 1,300 miles long, 

 and at some points (as on the coast of Maine, where there is an extensive fishery in the 

 outward islands) from 30 to upward of 50 miles wide. Its geographical range covers 

 about 20 degrees of north latitude, from the thirty-fifth to the fifty-second parallel; 

 but owing to the extreme irregularity of the coast the actual area of distribution is 

 much greater. At present the lobster is most abundant and attaius the largest size 

 in the northern half of its range, that is upon the coasts of Maine and the British 

 Maritime Provinces. 



The lobster was recorded from Labrador by Packard in 1863. ~" The rocky shores," 

 he says, " exposed to surf from the gnlf, did not seem to harbor any animal life, but a 

 narrow, interrupted belt of sand and mudflats in Salmon Bay" (near Caribou Island) 

 supports a feeble assemblage of littoral forms {144). Under the rocks and seaweed the 

 lobster was occasionally seen. At Henley Harbor, a little above the Straits of Belle 

 Isle, it is mentioned as "rare." This seems to be the northern limit of the lobster. 

 At Hopedale, 200 miles above this point, he showed a picture of the lobster to one of 

 the native Eskimos, who signified that it was not found there {148). 



The lobster was common at Anticosti and Mingan islands {145), where collections 

 were made by Veirill, Hyatt, and Shaler in 1861. Stearns {185), who asserts that 

 "lobsters were found everywhere along the coast of Labrador," is doubtless in error. 

 He probably had in mind the "Gulf coast," or "Inner Labrador," as the territory of 

 the Province of Quebec which stretches southwesterly from the Straits of Belle Isle 

 is often erroneously called. 



In speaking of the habits of lobsters in "Labrador," Stearns says: 



Very often the beach is covered with rocks, large and small, interspersed with holes and pits 

 tilled with water at low tide. The seaweed grows over these places, thus affording capital hiding- 

 places. One can often procure 100 lobsters in an afternoon from a strip of the beach hardly as many 

 yards long. The small boys hunt them with long poles on the ends of which are tied large cod hooks. 

 With these the boys reach in and feel about in the holes and under the rocks until they feel the shell 

 of a lobster, when a smart or careful haul, as the ease may require, generally brings the animal out of 

 its snug quarters. [These lobsters] are seldom very large, while the very young ones appear not to 

 come inshore among the rocks to any great extent (185). 



Dr. W. Wakeham, to whose kindness I am indebted for much interesting infor- 

 mation on the northerly range of the lobster, writes as follows: 



My own experience of the Labrador coast does not go beyond Chateau Bay at the northeastern 

 entrance to the straits of Belle Isle. From this point west along the Labrador and north shore of 

 Quebec, I have found the lobster everywhere fairly abundant up to Manicouagan in the river St. 

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