24 
LOBSTER CULTURE. 
Through a grant obtained from the Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries, certain additions were made to the tanks in the 
experimental aquarium, and an apparatus was installed for keeping 
the water in the tanks in movement by paddles, for the purpose of 
making an experiment on lobster culture. No special arrangements, 
however, were made for obtaining lobsters, and we obtained our 
supply from the market at North Shields. The first batch of berried 
lobsters yielded about one larva each, and the larvae did not live 
more than about a week. Another berried lobster was obtained 
by Fishery Officer Taylor from the same source, about the end of 
the hatching season, and this one yielded some 1,300 larvae. 
These were reared with scarcely a death from a fortnight to three 
weeks, when they suddenly, in a few days, became reduced in 
numbers in the most mysterious manner, without leaving any trace. 
Yet again as late as September 17th, another berried lobster was 
got from Shields. She commenced to hatch on October 7th, and 
in about a week about 20 larvae were found to be swimming about 
the aquarium tank in which the berried lobster was placed. These 
finally (just before the end of the month) all left the surface. They 
were seen from time to time thereafter at the bottom of the tank. 
But these in turn have also gradually disappeared. 
The preliminary trials have therefore been far from satisfactory. 
It is evident that the exposure to the air of the berried lobsters is 
rapidly fatal to the larvae. In no case did we obtain more than 
a small proportion of the available number of larvae. The drying 
of the egg- capsules makes it difficult for the embryo to hatch. It 
is possible that the effects persist even in the case of those which 
have hatched, accounting to some extent for the subsequent deaths. 
The successive castings did not take place so quickly as was 
expected from the experiences of other places. But it is possible 
that the copper of the taps and of the standards of the paddling 
apparatus may have had something to do with the failures as well. 
