NATURAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN LOBSTER. 371 



To save the precious spawn thus inevitably lost two plans have been tried or sug- 

 gested: (i) Collecting the egg lobsters from the canneries and fishermen and subse- 

 quently hatching and liberating the fry, and (2), placing the berried females thus 

 obtained in suitable inclosufes and allowing the young to hatch under more natural 

 conditions. The former plan has been adopted and carried out on a rather large scale 

 in Canada and less extensively in the United States. As a means of saving the eggs 

 which might be otherwise totally lost, both methods are to be commended, but for the 

 preservation of the fishery neither is adequate. 



By use of the second method more eggs would doubtless be hatched and more vig- 

 orous larvae produced, while, on the other hand, an unnatural concentration of the young 

 at a few points near shore would lead to a greater destruction. The hatching and imme- 

 diate liberation of the young, which is far less commendable, will be later discussed. 



The most important things to consider first are (2) the legal length limit, and (4) 

 the hatching and immediate liberation of the young, because they are fundamentally 

 related, have been long on trial, and have entailed great expense. That they have 

 had a fair trial and that they have signally failed all must admit. 



THE GAUGE LAW. 



No doubt there are many who are ready to affirm that the present laws would be 

 good enough if enforced. Most people are aware that the gauge law has not been 

 rigidly carried out, and that the illegal sale of short lobsters has become a trade of 

 big proportions. I know very well that at many times of the year it is possible to buy 

 short lobsters (said to come from Baltimore) in the markets of Cleveland and of other 

 towns in the great Middle West. Nevertheless I can not share this idea. Both of these 

 measures were bound to fail, and would have failed whether the short lobsters were 

 destroyed or not. 



To come back to our question. What is the matter with the lobster, or with our 

 means of fostering it? We have committed a series of grave errors in dealing with 

 this fishery, to the chief of which, the gauge law, the others have been contributory. 



First, by legalizing the capture of the large adult animals, above lo^ inches in 

 length, we have destroyed the chief egg-producers, upon which the race in this animal, 

 as in every other, must depend. Second, as supporting or contributory causes, some of 

 us now, like others in the past, have entertained false ideas upon the biology of this 

 animal, especially (o) upon the value of the eggs or their rate of survival, that is, the 

 ratio between the eggs and the adults which come from them, and (6) of the true signifi- 

 cance to the fisheries of the breeding habits, especially in regard to the time and frequency 

 of spawning and the fosterage or carriage of the eggs. Our practices have been neither 

 logical nor consistent, for, while we have overestimated the amount of gold in the egg, 

 we have killed the "goose" which lays it. We have thought the eggs so valuable that 

 we have been to great trouble and expense in collecting and afterwards hatching them 

 and committing the young to the mercy of the sea, while we have legaUzed the destruc- 

 tion of the great source of the eggs themselves — the large producing adults. 

 62399°—" IS 



