OBSERVATIONS UPON FISHES AND FISH-CULTURE. 
61 
Sole ( Solea solea). 
On October 6, 1888, the Commissioner deposited in Vineyard Sound, near Quick’s 
Hole, 28 soles which had been received from time to time at Wood’s Holl from Eng- 
land. 
Lobster ( Homarus americanus). 
On June 16, 1888, car No. 3 left Woods Holl with 610 lobsters for the Pacific 
coast; 282 died en route. The survivors were planted at Monterey, July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 
and 6. Out of 196,000 eggs taken with the adults, 92,000 were lost in transit. 
The experiment of acclimating lobsters on the Pacific coast was renewed in 1889. 
^i.n account of the shipment will be found in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commis- 
sion for 1888, pp. 453-472. 
The attempt to rear young lobsters in large numbers at the Woods Holl station 
was again unsuccessful. 
On March 28, 1890, there were 745 lobsters, measuring from 7 to 10 inches in 
length, shipped from Woods Holl in wooden crates, packed in seaweed, for the Gulf 
of Mexico, near Galveston, Tex. Of these 385 were females, 37 of which had their 
eggs fertilized, and 360 were males. On April 7 the eggs, numbering 250,000, were 
planted near Galveston. The fresh water of the bay proved fatal to the adults. 
For the hatching operations at Woods Holl lobsters were obtained from the local 
fishermen. After the eggs were stripped off the females were marked and returned 
to the grounds from which they were caught, the object being to ascertain how often 
they deposited their eggs undpr natural conditions. Collecting began April 16, and 
by June 30, 1890, there were received 723 egg lobsters, varying in length from 9 to 14 
inches. From these were obtained 8,317,600 eggs, which produced about 4,500,000 of 
fry. These were liberated in Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay, in the vicinity of 
Woods Holl, from two to four days after hatching. The percentage hatched was 54. 
The apparatus used were the McDonald improved hatching box, the Chester jar, and 
the McDonald universal hatching jar. The first two were operated by tidal motion, 
the latter by a continual current through the jar. The longest incubation period of 
eggs received here was 42 days and 3 hours. These eggs were taken April 22, 
1890, when the water temperature was 45°, and the lobsters were well developed 
in the eggs at the time of collection. They did not hatch until the water reached a 
temperature of 59°. A lobster with eggs, said to be about to hatch, and in which 
the embryo was well developed, was brought in when the temperature was 36°, but no 
increase in development was noticed until May 18, after a period of 99 days, when 
the water reached 54°. A few fry were retained in the jar in which they were 
hatched, and in six weeks after hatching were transferred to an aquarium. 
Common Pacific crab (Cancer magister). 
In July, 1888, Prof. Leslie A. Lee and Mr. J. F. Ellis, collected live crabs ( Cancer 
magister) at San Francisco, Cal., for transportation to the Atlantic coast on car No. 3 
of the Commission. The entire shipment was lost by the wrecking of the car. 
