THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 117 



June, 1893, a large wale lobster which weighed 20 pounds. In the same lot was one 

 weighing 10 pounds. 



In May, 1891', Mr. N. P. Trefethen obtained a lobster from the vicinity of East- 

 port, Maine, which weighed 15A pounds. He weighed it himself, and sent ltto market. 

 It had a very hard shell and had lost its smaller claw; if it had been perfect it 

 would have weighed considerably more. 



In August, 1891, according to Mr. F. W. Collins, a lobster (sex undetermined) 

 was taken at Blue Hill Falls, 10 miles east of Rockland, which weighed 184 pounds, 

 and in November, 1892, a perfect female lobster was taken at Green Island, Maine, 

 which weighed 18 pounds. This outer island is noted for its fine lobster fishing. Mr. 

 Collins states that in August, 1891, he had fifty lobsters at one time in his establish- 

 ment which would weigh from 10 to 1S£ pounds. About half of these came from 

 Castine and the remainder from Blue Hill Falls, Maine. All of these were "new shell 

 lobsters " — that is, they had shed that year, probably in July. 



Mr. Thomas Garrett, who was one of three men who first engaged in lobster 

 fishing at Vinal Haven, Maine, over forty years ago, and has been engaged in this 

 pursuit most of the time siuce, says that he has taken a great many lobsters which 

 would weigh from 15 to 20 pounds. He says that a perfect male lobster weighing 30 

 pounds 1 was taken in a hoop-net in Goldeu Cove, in Vinal Haven Harbor, in about the 

 year 1858, and that in 1887 a lobster was caught in the basin (near the site of the 

 present lobster pound on Vinal Haven Island) which weighed 11 pounds and had only 

 one large claw. 



The mouth of the Shillings River is said to have furnished large lobsters in 

 plenty in the fall of 1888. It was very common to take lobsters there weighing 15 

 pounds. The place had not been previously fished with regularity, but it soon became 

 the resort of fishermen and the lobsters were rapidly reduced in numbers and size. 



Fishermen in Rockland, Maine, have gaffed lobsters in the harbor in the past two 

 years weighing from 8 to 9 pounds. I heard of a large lobster which was caught on a 

 trawl, the hook catching in a joint of the shell, in June, 1892, on White Island grounds, 

 near Vinal Haven. It was said to have weighed over 20 pounds. 



Mr. F. W. Collins informs me that he received at Rockland, in 1893, a larger 

 number of lobsters than usual measuring about 15 inches in length and weighing 

 about 5 pounds. 



These notes furnish evidence, if any were needed, that very large lobsters, weigh- 

 ing 20 pounds or more, are even now occasionally taken, but I have never obtained 

 any reliable evidence that lobsters weighing over 25 pounds have ever beeu caught. 

 Where lobsters are said to have attained a greater weight, measurements of the parts 

 of the skeleton which have been preserved invariably prove that the figures have 

 been exaggerated. I do not maintain that the American lobster does not reach a 

 greater weight than 25 pounds, but that I have been unable, up to the present time, 

 to discover any well-authenticated evidence that this is the case. 



Many points on the coast of Maine and the Maritime Provinces still furnish large 

 lobsters weighing 10 pounds or more, but not in any considerable number, and lobsters 

 of 5 pounds weight are frequently common; yet it is at the same time true that the 

 size of the lobster has been declining for many years, until the average weight has, in 

 most places, fallen below 2 pounds. 



1 The weight of this large lobster may have been unintentionally exaggerated. One can hardly 

 avoid such an inference from the evidence already given. 



