374 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



(6) The number of eggs produced increases with surprising rapidity in proportion to 

 the cube of the length or the total volume of the body, from the very beginning of sexual 

 maturity. The approximate number of eggs at 8 inches is 5,000; at 10 inches, 10,000; at 

 12 inches, 20,000; at 14 inches, 40,000; at 16 inches, nearly 60,000; and at 18 inches, 

 -nearly 80,000. In the case of 532 io>^-inch berried lobsters taken from the waters of 

 Massachusetts, the smallest, average, and largest number of eggs borne were 5,000, 1 3,000, 

 and 36,000. The smallest number probably represents a first brood, so that the aver- 

 age berried lobster at this size is probably carrying eggs for the second time. The 

 maximum of production is reached at the 15 to 16 inch stage, when some individuals 

 produce nearly 100,000 eggs at one time. 



The average io>^-inch berried lobster is from 5 to 7 years old; and assuming 

 that it has borne eggs once before, it has lived to produce 23,000 eggs. On the other 

 hand, an egg-bearer 16 inches in length, which according to Hadley's estimate is nearly 

 18 years old, has had a succession of eight broods and has produced 210,000 eggs. 

 The larger animal is thus worth nine times as much as the smaller; in other words, in 

 the course of twelve years its value to the fishery has been increased 800 per cent. 



Again, it should be noted that it is the class of small adults up to, but not including 

 the 9 or loK-inch animals, those which produce by the fives or tens of thousands, upon 

 which we have relied to maintain the race, while it is the class of big lobsters, which 

 produce the fifty and the hundred thousands, that has been nearly wiped out. 



(c) There is a definite spawning period for the majority of adults, ranging on the 

 coast of Massachusetts from July 15 to August 15, and averaging two weeks later in 

 northern Maine. A relatively small per cent lay their eggs in fall and winter. 



((f) It is a fact, though frequently denied, that the American lobster lays its eggs, 

 as already stated, but once in two years (though rare exceptions to this rule may be 

 looked for), and not annually, as was formerly supposed. 



(e) The eggs are carried attached to the underside of the tail, and admirably 

 guarded by parental instinct for nearly a year, or until they are hatched 10 or 11 months 

 after deposition. 



Ignorance of the fact that there is a definite spawning period, that the eggs are laid 

 but once in 2 years, and that they are subsequently carried from 10 to 1 1 months, to hatch 

 in June or July following the summer when laid, is responsible, in considerable measure, 

 for erroneous ideas regarding the efficacy of closed seasons, laws protecting the berried 

 lobster, and other matters of legislation, the effects of which have not yet worn away. 



(/) The fry or young, when hatched, rise to the surface or toward it, and lead a free- 

 swimming life for 3 weeks, hardly larger than a mosquito and infinitely more harmless, 

 translucent, brilliant in reds and blues, and quite helpless in the presence of all but the 

 minute animals upon which they prey. They perish quickly by the thousands before 

 the storm and the countless fish and other enemies which they meet in their varied 

 movements, and which do not disdain small fry. 



At the third molt, or the fourth, counting that passed at the time of hatching, with 

 what seems like a sudden leap and bound, they are transformed into the fourth or the 



