16 
THE BOOK OF FISHES 
Photograph by Arnold L. Belcher 
PART OF THE FISHING FLEET AT ANCHOR NEAR THE CUSTOMHOUSE TOWER 
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
The American Lobster (see Color 
Plate, page 54) is found only on the eastern 
coast of the United States. Its known 
range covers a strip of the North At¬ 
lantic reaching from Labrador to North 
Carolina, with the Maine and lower Ca¬ 
nadian shores as the region of its greatest 
commercial abundance. This strip of 
water is from 30 to 50 miles wide and 
from 6 to 600 feet deep. 
THE lobster’s HABITS 
Frorn the close of its early free pelagic 
life to its old age, which often stretches 
into decades, the Lobster never leaves the 
sea bottom of its own accord. Its ex¬ 
ternal world is the ocean floor, and it is 
content to stay there. 
Having considerable power of locomo¬ 
tion, it wanders around as winter ap¬ 
proaches, from the shallow inshore waters 
to the deeper ones of the loo-fathom line, 
searching for water of comfortable tem¬ 
perature and for suitable food, and at¬ 
tending to the duties of reproduction. 
Its instincts constantly lead it to con¬ 
ceal itself, sometimes to take its prey un¬ 
awares, and at others to hide from its 
natural enemies. 
It walks over the sea floor on its slender 
