BEEBDING OF THE EUROPEAN LOBSTER. 80 



yonng Lobsters soon gambol about in the water, and come up to the surface, where they remai 

 during the entire time of their future development. ... 



" At the fifth change their metamorphosis is complete, and therewith ends their pelagian lif 

 The young Lobster has then entirely lost its swimming apparatus attached to the fore part of i1 

 body, and in its stead the well-known fringes have grown at the lower side of the back part of th 

 body. These fringes are the only swimming apparatus which the grown Lobster possesses; in tl 

 female Lobster they also serve to keep the roe in position. The Lobster now leaves the surfac 

 and goes to the bottom, there to lead the same life as its parents. I am not positively certain ho' 

 long a time is required for the entire metamorphosis, but I am inclined to believe that it consume 

 a couple of months. 



"Even after the Lobster has reached its final development, it continues to change its ski 

 regularly at least once a year, and continues to do so as long as it gro\?^. Only when it ha 

 ceased growing this change of skin does not occhr so often. We shall, therefore, always fin 

 that very large Lobsters are more or l^ss thickly covered with scales, which is not so frequent i 

 smaller specimens. ... 



" I did not succeed in^ obtaining Lobsters measuring from an inch to a finger's length, and s 

 far as I know none are contained in any museum. I consider it as certain, however, that th 

 Lobsters keep near the coast during this stage of their development. The reason why they cannt 

 be caught with the bottom scraper is partly their quick movements and partly the clrcumstanc 

 that they hide among the algse on the bottom of the sea. The fact that they cannot be caugt 

 in the common lobster-baskets is easily explained by these having such wide openings." 



The following account of tlie reproduction of the European Lobster on the French coast i 

 by the late M. Ooste, well remembered from his many interesting and extensive experiments i 

 several branches of fish culture. We have no means of determining how accurate these obse: 

 vations are, nor do we know whether they are the result of close study or conclusions derive 

 from the accounts of fishermen. We offer them here as affording many valuable suggestior 

 which may aid observers on our own coast. The seasons do not entirely correspond with ours: 



"The Lobster commences breeding in the month of October, and the pairing takes plac 

 sometimes as late as January. The couplings are rare at the opening of the season,' but increae 

 in frequency to the end of December, and but few take place in January. The female einits tl 

 eggs in about fifteen or twenty days after the pairing. When they have reached the stag 

 proper for their expulsion, the female applies the inner side of the tail against the plastron < 

 %hell immediately over the stomach, in such a manner as to form a cup or cavity, in which ai 

 to ,be found the openings of the oviduct, placed exactly behind the third pair of legs. Consi 

 quently when the eggs escape they fall into this natural cup or cavity, as described abov 

 They are expelled in successive jets, to the number of twenty thousand in a single day. 



"The Lobster emits at the same time,* along, with the eggs, a kind of adhesive liqui( 

 which binds the eggs one to the other, and attaches them all to the small feet under the tai 

 where they remain in perfect shelter from all harm until they are sufQciently ripe for fin: 

 expulsion. 



"In order to forward and force the regular incubation of the ova, the females have th 

 power to give them more or less light, as they consider requisite, by closing or opening the fol 

 of the tail. Sometimes the eggs are kept quite covered, and at other times they give them 

 kind of washing, by moving the flanges of the tail in a peculiar manner. The incubation lasl 

 six months, during which time the female takes such good care of the ova that it is rare to fin 

 an injured embryo or barren egg. 



