NATURAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN LOBSTER. 
195 
pounds. (Table 1, no. 15.) There may also be seen in the museum of Bergen, Norway, 
a lobster which Prof. S. 0 . Sars in 1878 described as an “immense specimen,” the living 
weight of which could not have been much over 12 pounds. 
Though it has been an accepted belief that the American lobster attains a greater 
size than its European counterpart, it is possible, in view of comparison of no. 10 and 
no. 16 of table x, that the maximum size of each species is nearly the same. The data 
are not at hand for determining the question with certainty. It seems certain, however, 
that American lobsters of average or medium size are considerably stockier and have 
larger claws than the European, and that length for length, such animals will weigh 
more. The lobster fishery of Europe, though pursued for ages by primitive methods, 
is still very much older than that of America, and it is probable that the larger 
lobsters have been more effectually weeded out there than here. At the time Sars’s 
paper was written (244) it would not have occurred to one familiar with the American 
species to speak of a 10 or 12 pound lobster as in any way remarkable, yet at present 
few of this size find their way to our markets. In fact the same gradual falling off, 
due evidently to the same cause, has been experienced for many years in Maine and 
Canada. 
Table; i. — Record of Giant Lobsters. 
[No. 1-14 refer to Homarus americanus. No. 15-16 to H. gammarus .] 
Crushing claw. 
Toothed claw. 
No. 
Sex. 
Place of capture. 
Date. 
Length. 
Length of 
1 
Where preserved. 
Living 
weight. 
carapace. 
Length 
Girth. 
j Length 
Girth. 
Inches. 
Inches. 
Inches. 
Inches. 
Inches. 
Inches. 
Pounds. 
Gloucester, Mass. 
1840 
13 
17-50 
Peabody Academy of 
Science, Salem, Mass. 
a 28 
S 
1850 
1868 
21-75 
20. 25 
9.94 
9-37 
12. 50 
12. 50 
15 
15-25 
12.37 
13-25 
a 23-25 
a 24 
3 
<? 
Boothbav, Me. . . 
11. 12 
Land Office, Booth- 
bay Harbor, Me. 
12.50 
i 3- 12 
15- 50 
16. 12 
® 24 
a 25 
s 
12. 87 
8. so 
tion, Washington. 
6 
s 
1891 
20+1 
9+1 
13-75 
16.87 
13-87 
12. 50 
A d e 1 b er t College, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 
628 
s 
1892 
20. 62 
9 * 25 
15 
11.50 
Campobello Island, 
New Brunswick. 
a 23 
8 
s 
1894 
20-21 
12-13 
Formerly at St. Nicho- 
las Hotel, Boston, 
a 23-25 
Mass. 
Mass. 
9 
s 
Atlantic High- 
1897 
23 - 75 
12. 24 
15 
20. 50 
I 5 - 50 
15-25 
American Museum of 
34 
lands, N. J. 
Natural History, 
New York. 
10 
S 
Newport, R. I.c . 
19.50 
n -75 
11.87 
19 
mission Inland Fish- 
eries, Providence, 
R. I. 
11 
<? 
Atlantic High- 
1899 
22.50 
10. 28 
14. 66 
17- 68 
14.40 
13-54 
American Museum of 
31 
lands, N. J. 
Natural History, 
New York. 
12 
s 
1899 
23-24 
032+ 
land, Me. d 
13 
s 
19. 80 
12.33 
15. 60 
12. 40 
11 
a 24 
Natural History, 
New York. 
14 
s 
Near Bayonne, 
1898 
20.37 
14 
16 
13-50 
11. 50 
a 25-28 
3 
N. J. 
9. 29 
Museum of University 
of Pennsylvania, 
15 
19-40 
13. 10 
16. 80 
12. 40 
10. 15 
a 23-25 
Coast of Norway. 
i 85 o(?) 
Philadelphia. 
16 
3 
18. 73 
8. 58 
10. 23 
10. 62 
10. 03 
8. 07 
Bergen Museum, Nor- 
O I2-J- 
way. 
0 Living weight estimated, b Living weight estimated from weight when boiled. c After Hadley, d Body length eti mated. 
