DISTRIBUTION OF THE EUROPEAN LOBSTER. 80'i 



free swimmers and very small, living mostly at the surface of the water, by far the greates 

 mortality must occur. At this time they are eaten in vast quantities along with other surface 

 animals by the more active fish and invertebrates, and probably but a comparatively small pro 

 portion of those hatched from the egg ever survive this stage. We may, however, be justified ii 

 asserting that the greatest enemy of the Lobster is man. 



Mr. Frank Buckland, in treating of the enemies of the European Lobster, says that "amon| 

 the animate enemies the principal one, I believe, is the cod. A witness at Burghead stated thai 

 'codfish are great enemies to Lobsters; he hardly ever opens a cod without finding young Lobsters 

 in the stomach ; this is particularly in February and March ; has seen cod throwing up Lobsters 

 on the deck of a vessel, as many as five or six Lobsters in one cod. These Lobsters would b( 

 three or four inches in length, or even smaller. Cod eat Lobsters all the season. In the spring 

 and in January, February, and March, there are many cod about.' Skates and congers, codling 

 and haddock, also eat Crabs and Lobsters." * 



Desteuotion by stoems. — ^Mr. F. H. Baker, in a recent paper on American Lobsters, refers 

 to their being occasionally destroyed in great numbers in shallow water by heavy storms. H( 

 cites as an instance the great Saxby storm on the coast of Nova Scotia, after which the deac 

 Lobsters were piled up in immense numbers, in several places, "lining the shores like windrows 

 of hay on a field in midsummer, the stench from which was overpowering as the Lobsters decayed 

 in the sun." 



Distribution and habits op the Eueopean Lobstee. — The following account of the 

 distribution and habits of the European Lobster, Homarus vulgaris, abstracted from a reporl 

 by a Danish-Norwegian naturalist, ^ is inserted here to permit of comparison between these twc 

 closely related forms, and to fill up some of the numerous gaps in the history of our own species 

 The European Lobster is so similar to our own structurally that we are safe in assuming thai 

 the habits of the two are in the main alike. In comparing the European with the Americai 

 species, however, it must always be borne in mind that the former never attains the extreme size 

 of the latter, and also averages smaller in size, while the female begins to spawn when only sii 

 inches long, although at this size it may possibly be quite as old as the young spawning Amer 

 ican female. There are so many important questions of practical value still unsolved regarding 

 the American Lobster, that the suggestions set forth by this Norwegian report may lead to theij 

 proper investigation : 



"The European Lobster seems to have its ceni;ral location on the southwestern coast o: 

 Norway, and goes as fjar north as Finmarken, where, according to Lem, in his description of the 

 Finmarken Laplanders, 1767, it is found north of Traenen, where he ate very fine ones on the 

 island of Rodo, while formerly their northern limit was thought to be the island of Brondo; bui 

 he also thinks that they would be found in Finmarken, if people only searched for them. It is 

 very rarely found on the coasts of Iceland, where, according to Mohr's ' Islandske Naturhistorie, 

 it has been found by Dr. Poulsen in Grondevig, but it does not extend to Greenland or Spitzbergen 

 It does not go into the Baltic, but is found all over the Kattegat, especially near Anholt 

 Hirsholmene, Laeso, and Hjelm, and, according to Mr. Fiedler's report, in the Great Belt as fai 

 as Sprogo. On the coast of Bohuslan it is very common, and is said to go into the Sound as fai 

 as the island of Hveen. On the west coast of Jutland, it is found wherever the bottom is stony 

 and it is very common near Heligoland. It rarely goes into the inlets on our western coasts 

 chiefly on account of their great depth. It is very rare in the inner portion of the Bay of Christi 



ania, and not very common in the Limfiord. On the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, it ii 



. — , 



' Axel Boeck: Om det norske Hummerfiske og dets Historie. Copenhagen, 1868-'69. 



