There are no better oyster grounds in the world than the eastern' provinces of Canada, from Grand Manan to the Labrador boundary. Not so many years ago the finest lobsters could be bought and sold for 50 cents per 100. In Chaleur Bay they occurred in such numbers that farmers used them by thousands to manure the land. Canneries began to be established about 1870, and in 1910 there were 677 canneries in the eastern provinces. The catch in 1890 amounted to 11,559,984 pound cans, while the quantity shipped to market in shell amounted to 104,940 hundredweight, the whole of a value of $1,648,344. During the next 20 years the quantity taken remained al most stationary, but the value greatly increased. In 1910 the total was 9,071,600 pound cans, with shipment in shells of 103,907 hundred weight, with aggregate value of $3,657,146; in 1915-16 the catch was 445,277 hundredweight, and value $4,506,155. As measures toward maintaining the lobster supply, laws have been enacted fixing fines for the possession of egg bearing lobsters or those below a specified minimum size, and recourse has been had to artificial propagation. In the latter practice many millions of eggs are annually taken from the bearing lobsters, artificially hatched, and the larva: distributed by the fish commissions of the United States and the British provinces. In 1914 our bureau planted upward of 194,670, 000 of fry, and the Canadian government operates on an even more extensive scale. The
beneficial results have been scarcely apparent, but the recent successful rearing of lobsters be yond the larval stages has introduced a more hopeful outlook. The methods of the lobster fishery are very simple and uniform. Use is made of a trap or pot, a box-like affair gener ally made of laths placed about one inch apart, and with a funnels aped opening of coarse net ting placed in one end. The pot is baited with otherwise useless fish, weighted with stones, and lowered to the bottom by means of a rope to the upper end of which a buoy, with the owner's private mark affixed, is attached. The pots are visited daily, and the lobsters, which after en tering are unable to find their way out, re moved. They are kept alive in floats until a sufficient number for shipment has been gathered. Besides those sold in the shells, large quantities of the meat are canned, partic ularly at Portland.
Consult especially the elaborate account of the American lobster by Herrick in 'Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission' for 1895, in which full bibliographical references will be found; also Barnes, E. W., 'Methods of Oyster Protection and Propagation) (Provi dence 1911); Herrick, H. F., 'Natural History of the American Lobster' (Washington 1911) ; and the evidence laid before the Canadian Fisheries' Commission on 'Lobster Fishery in Quebec and the Maritime Provinces' (Ottawa 1909-10).