80 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



on the other hand, the number of lobsters which have recently shed jumps suddenly 

 to 58. These observations may be summed up for the whole period as follows: 



Total catch. 



Shell cl „ 



hard ami Shell 



dull. : soft " 



Total. 



( 1, 313 males 



33 44 



77 1 

 33 



2, 657 < 



1 1, 344 females 



7 26 



Of the entire catch, 110 have either recently molted or are preparing to molt; 77 

 of them are males, 33 females. The total number of males is smaller, yet the number 

 of soft shells among them is nearly twice as great as in the other sex. This fact implies 

 that the males molt oftener than the females, which would be an a priori deduction 

 from the greater size which the male attains (see p. 34), or that they molt more frequently 

 during those months. It is interesting to recall in this connection the observation of 

 Ohantran (57) that the male crayfish molts twice in the year, while the female molts 

 but once. Females molt, as a rule, shortly after the young are hatched, and very 

 rarely just before the eggs are laid (see p. 35). 



When I was in Portland, Maine, on the 24th of August, 1893, soft-shelled lobsters 

 were being caught in that region, while fishing smacks were bringing hard-shelled 

 lobsters from Jonesport, near the eastern border of the State. Soft-shelled lobsters 

 are still taken in the Portland district, as I was informed by Mr. N. P. Trefethen, for 

 four or five weeks before they are received in large numbers from Jonesport. 



Mr. F. W. Collins, of Eockland, thinks that lobsters shed earlier in the shoal mud 

 coves, which are full of eelgrass, than on rocky bottoms. The shedding commonly 

 occurs there on muddy bottoms in the latter part of July and the first part of August. 



Shedders in small numbers are occasionally taken in Eockland in January and 

 February, and sometimes shed in cars at this time. In deep water outside, as at Seal 

 Island, Matinicus, Green, and Eagged islands, where lobsters are caught in winter in 

 40 to 50 fathoms, and in shoal places in summer in 3 to 10 fathoms, very few soft-shell 

 lobsters or shedders were taken in the summer of 1893, up to the 26th of August, not 

 more than a dozen among thousands examined each week. The majority of the soft- 

 shell lobsters from these localities come later in the season, from the last of September 

 to the middle of October. 



Mr. A. P. Greenleaf said he had rarely seen soft-shell lobsters at Southport, Maine, 

 but that in the winter of 1893 (in January and February) he had taken dozens of them. 



At West Jonesport, Maine, on September 4, 1893, I was told by a fisherman at 

 Beal Island that hard-shell lobsters had prevailed up to that time, but that soft-shells 

 were becoming common. He thought that the shedding was rather later than usual. 

 This confirms the reports made at Eockland and Portland. 



Molting lobsters were very common at Woods Hole in October and November, 

 1890, particularly in the latter month, when Mr. Vinal N. Edwards says that more were 

 caught than during the earlier part of the season. In December, 1891, Mr. Edwards 

 found lobsters in all stages of shedding, some that appeared as if they would be ready 

 to molt in a few weeks, and others as if they might shed in a few days. Thus it was 

 probable that the lobsters continued to molt to some extent in winter, which is shown 

 by table 23 to be the case. 



The abundance of shedders which was noticed in the late fall of 1890 at Woods 

 Hole has not since been observed, and it seems clear that there is considerable varia- 

 tion in the molting of lobsters in a single locality at this season of the year. 



