364 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
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be attended by two or more males. Eeacbing the shore, the eggs are deposited above 
the water’s edge in a slight depression in the sand made by the female, and the 
male extrudes the milt over them. The adults then withdraw to the water ; the eggs 
receive no more attention, and are covered with sand and washed about by the waves. 
When hatching ensues, the young enter the water to return to the shore again upon 
reaching maturity. 
The abundance of crabs on the shore during any special week or month appears 
to be largely dependent on the tides. Mr. Howell remarks that the farmers and 
fishermen take the greatest quantities when the moon is full or in perigee, and the 
influence of the tides on the movements of crabs has come to be fully realized. The 
wind is also held to increase or decrease the numbers of crabs, a westerly wind 
bringing them in abundantly on the i^Tew Jersey coast, while an easterly wind is most 
favorable on the opposite side of the bay, upon the shores of Delaware. 
THE FISHING SEASON. 
The season during which king-crabs are taken varies somewhat from year to year, 
owing to hydrothermal and other conditions, but ordinarily begins about May 1 and 
continues till June 15 or July 1, in New Jersey. In Delaware it is somewhat longer, 
and often extends to August 1. As already explained, the fishing season coincides 
very closely with the breeding season. 
THE FISHING CENTERS IN NEW JERSEY. 
The most northern point on Delaware Bay at which crabs are taken is Heislerville, 
between which and Cape May Point, a distance of 20 miles, the crabs are sought at 
Ewing Neck, West Creek, East Creek, Dennis vilie, Gioshen, Dias Creek, Green Creek, 
Fishing Creek, Town Bank, and one or two other minor settlements. About seven- 
eighths of the entire catch is made between Dennisville and Fishing Creek, inclusive, 
and about three-fourths of the yield is taken at Goshen, Dias Creek, and Green Creek, in 
which places the catch in 1890 was, in round numbers, 335,000, 410,000, and 411,000 crabs, 
respectively. At the extremities of the stretch of coast above defined the output was 
much smaller, varying from 10,000 to 30,000 at Town Bank, Heislerville, etc. 
APPARATUS AND METHODS. 
While considerable quantities of crabs are caught by hand on the shores of Delaware 
Bay, where they go to deposit their spawn, the growing scarcity of the species has 
more and more demanded the employment of apparatus of capture by means of which 
the individuals that are in the water adjacent to the shores may also be secured. As 
yet no traps have been employed on the shores of the State of Delaware, but such 
appliances have been set in New Jersey waters for a number of years, and their use 
is becoming more extensive each year. 
Two forms of apparatus are in rather common use along the New Jersey shore 
between Cape May Point and Heislerville. One resembles some types of pound-nets, 
but the other is, so far as known, entirely unlike anything else used in the waters of 
the United States and is designed for and especially adapted to this fishery. 
Regarding the pound-nets used in this fishery, Mr. Earll says : 
