30 
at Beadnell, September to March, and Sea Houses, September to 
February or March, the pots if used at all are placed in situations 
unfavourable to the catching of lobsters. They may be caught 
however if pots are placed near to the rocks in the winter as is 
exemplified in this year’s records for Sea Houses (Table 2). 
It is thus apparent that if any improvement is to be made in the 
case of the lobster it must be through the berried female. 
Mr. Douglas has kept a record for the six years of the number of 
small lobsters he has caught and returned to the sea. The 
small lobsters to the catch of ‘hard’ are as 478 : 4655 or 1 : 10. 
These are lobsters under the gauge size, and the numbers are 
interesting as showing to what extent the small lobsters may be 
caught in the pots, and also the number which have thus to be 
returned to the sea by the fishermen. In the North-Eastern District, 
the enquiry of 1895 elicited from two fishermen that the catch of 
small was as 1 : 5. 
2. — CATCH PER 100 POTS. — It will be useful now to reduce 
the statistics from Sea Houses and Beadnell to the common level 
which naturally suggests itself — the catch per 100 pots per day. 
Tables V. and VI. give the results per 100 pots per month, and 
Tables VII. and VIII. the results per 100 pots per day. The 
averages for the six years so far as the hard crabs^ and lobsters 
are concerned are exhibited in graphic form in Chart III. The 
close set horizontal lines draw attention to the Beadnell, and the 
wider lines to the Sea Houses results. In both portions of the 
Chart the wide columns represent the Sea Houses, and the narrow 
columns the Beadnell figures. 
Ckabs. — In addition to the necessary re- statement in the tables 
of the above conclusions, it is now evident that the catches of crabs 
in the case of Beadnell gradually decrease from January to June, 
and each separate year tells the same story. At Sea Houses the 
diminishing of the catches does not occur to the same degree. A 
falling off certainly does take place, but the one year’s records for 
the succeeding three months showed a slight improvement for July 
and August, and the season is not so early as that of Beadnell. 
The general experiences of the fishermen may therefore be said 
to be that succeeding the casting season, that is, in January or 
February, large catches are made, that the catches gradually 
become less and less until the next casting season, when there is a 
heavy proportion of soft crabs, following which the relative com- 
pletion of the hardening process brings about once more the large 
