i66 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



An intelligent lobsterman of Eockland, Maine, said that thousands of small 

 lobsters, an inch long or under, came up on the warps and pots every day while lie 

 was hshiug at Hare Island in October and November. The lobsters would tumble off' 

 the traps as they came up. He took one of them home and examined it with a hand 

 lens, and said that it had the general form and appearance of a lobster. The bottom 

 in that vicinity was muddy or rocky, and covered with seaweed. He had never seen 

 a 2-inch lobster. The smallest of the young - lobsters recorded in table 32 is about an 

 inch and a half long. These, as we have seen, were taken from the rock piles in the 

 fall of the year, and most of the lobsters which are hatched in early summer and 

 survive are more than an inch long by October. Still, this fisherman's observation 

 may be correct, and the lobsters seen by him may represent that period between the 

 sixth larval stage (length 16 mm.) and the smallest of those found in the rock piles. 



A small lobster, about 1 J inches long, was said to have been taken from the shell 

 of a living clam in Rockland Harbor not long ago. This was evidently a case of 

 accidental imprisonment, and the animal may not have been a lobster. 



A fisherman at West Jonesport said that he had seen small lobsters brought up 

 on traps which were set on trawls, in deep water outside, in winter. 



Mr. Adolph Nielsen, superintendent of the fisheries of Newfoundland, says that 

 small lobsters 1£ to 2 inches long can be found in shallow water among the "goose- 

 grass" in the latter part of September, and that he has seen lobsters an inch long in 

 the same situations in the latter part of August and first part of September. 



Very few fishermen among many whom I have consulted can give any definite 

 information about the occurrence of lobsters from 1 to 3 inches long, and probably very 

 few can discriminate between the young of the lobster and many other Crustacea. 

 Those who have made any observations agree that such young lobsters are very 

 seldom seen in winter, but are usually found at other times in shallow water, in bays, 

 harbors, or the mouths of rivers, on rocky (rarely muddy) bottom, where they can be 

 found by turning over stones at low tide. Mr. George E. Cushman, of Cape Elizabeth, 

 Maine, says that lobsters 2 to 4 inches long are found in coves and rivers, in eelgrass, 

 and on sandy bottom, in from 2 feet to 5 fathoms of water. 



Mr. Rathbun, of the United States Fish Commission, informs me that hundreds 

 of lobsters 4 to 6 inches long were captured in the summer of 1880 in Narragansett Bay 

 by the beam trawl. The bottom was sandy, and the water 3 to 4 fathoms in depth. 



I think it is plain from the foregoing observations that a large number of the ado- 

 lescent lobsters over 1£ inches long seek protected places, such as beds of eelgrass in 

 shallow water, rocky shores of bays, and the mouths of rivers, where shelter from an 

 enemy is always at hand; but it is quite likely that some remain in deeper water. 



The habits of this animal are molded by its immediate environment and vary to 

 some extent with the varying elements in the complex of its surroundings. 



If we examine the lengths of lobsters described in table 32 we shall find they 

 form a gradually ascending series, so that when we lay off these lengths as ordinates 

 upon a horizontal base line, and construct a curve, the latter forms a slightly undulating 

 ascending line. This means either that the breeding season is indefinite or at least 

 prolonged, or that the young are extraordinarily unequal in their development. The 

 number examined is perhaps too small to enable us to draw any conclusions, but it is 

 a fact, as already shown, that the hatching is not strictly confined to a definite period. 

 Individual variation in size in a state of nature may, moreover, be considerable. 



The interesting question of the age of these adolescent lobsters is considered in 

 the chapter on the rate of growth of this animal. 



