Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-08-04

Brown, who has also for some years
been in the service of the Rhode Island
commission of inland fisheries, number
of students who have attained some pro-
ficiency in the natural sciences have
each year served with the assistant direc-
tor in charge of the work, Ernest w.
Barnes.
With ordinary expenses paid by the
state in exchange for their services, with
the opportunities of an outdoor summer
in q quiet, picturesque village on Maria
gansett bay with cottage camp on
breezy point of land, a floating expert
ment station on which the bathing suit
is the most appropriate warm weather
costume, and with the enjoyment OF nav
ing a recognized part in an undertaking
for the benefit of future generations 1t
is no wonder that the privilege of taking
such a course in marine biology Is highly
priced among Brown students If they
could be accommodated at the station
several times the half dozen young men
who are chosen would elect so popular
a study.
Not all the students spend their sum
mer in study of the problems of the
lobster alone. The clam, the crab and
some of the food fishes have also received
attention. Yet because of the special
facilities offered at the station most of
the Investigations have concerned the big
clawed crustacean of the banquet table.
Many of the researches have been i'm
portant enough for the commissioners to
publish in their annual reports or in
special pamphlets. Thus one student has
looked into the rate of growth of Holsters
and discovered many curious and enter
tanning facts chief among which is the
lack of uniformity, one lobster, at four
years being sometimes three or four times
as large as another lobster of the same
age
Another young man has gathered and
published many data regarding the
changes in form and color in the success |
sive stages of the creatures growth. One
has studied the subject of the regenera- |
ton of lost parts-it being an important
fact that the lobster when one of his |
claws or antennae is caught can let 1t
go, secure in the certainty that another |
will quickly replace it.
These and many similar Investigations |
have been carried on aboard queer look
ing collection of RATS and floats that is
anchored to a two"ton stone in shell |
tered cover of Narragansett bay about |
twenty miles below Providence.
Two house boat cabins in the center of |
the plant contain respectively a little
scientific laboratory and two gasoline
engine of three-hoEse power. The latter |
are an absolute necessity for artificially |
raising the broods. Round about in every |
are floats and boxes containing
old and young Holsters
The process of rearing consists essen |
TALLY in getting lot of the little fellows
10000 is the ordinary number-into great |
square canvas bag or wooden tub in
which the water is kept constantly in a |
circular whirl by a revolving paddle. |
Food-inely ground CLAIMS, usually-is |
dropped into the swirl every three or four |
hours, night and day.
The new born Holsters are greedy little |
beggars, and they will eat each other up |
If they are not kept moving and at the
same time furnished plentifully with other
food. Even in the best regulated breeding
bag more or less cannibalism occurs, but
not enough of it to prevent a goodly pro-
portion of the Holsters surviving to the
age proper for liberation.
The supply of larvae comes, of course,
from full grown egg Holsters, taken by
fishermen from the waters of the bay. All
winter long the female crustacean bears,
exposed on the under part of her body,
great clusters of eggs-from 5000 to 100000
in number, according to her size. In June
and July these hatch out.
Throughout the spring months the eX-
pertinent station at Wexford offers a |
premium for good sized Holsters "in
berry" as the technical term is The |
are usually sufficient for the
purpose in hand.
Experts can tell by the look of the |
Holsters eggs when they are ready to
hatch. Into one of the rectangular can
vas bags, with the water still, are
plunged a score or more of the females
whose broods are just about to break
through the shells of the eggs.
Soon the water is alive with a cloud
of tiny larvae, mostly all stomach and
eyes and antennae. AS soon as the num-
Der is estimated to be about 10000 the
mother Holsters are removed and the
great paddle set somewhat like the fan
that Shoes flies in a restaurant, and
actuated by the engines on the house
boat, begins to rotate. From then on
until they have reached what the nat
uralists call the fourth stage" the
youthful Holsters are literally in the
swim. Day and night the paddle keeps
the waters stirring, enough coming