spends his time roaming around the pot hunting for a means of escape.

The pots are generally hauled once a day, but sometimes twice a day in
good weather. As the tide along the Maine coast is quite strong, the
fishermen usually haul their pots at or about slack water, low tide
generally being preferred when they are worked once a day. The number
used by a fisherman varies greatly on different sections of the coast.
According to the investigations of this Commission, the average
number of pots to the man in certain years was as follows: Fifty-six
pots in 1880, 59 in 1887 and 1888, 58 in 1889 and 1892, and 50 in
1898. This average, however, is somewhat misleading, as quite a number
of persons along the coast take up lobstering for only a few months
in the year, and then return to their regular occupations. As these
persons use but few pots, the average per man throughout the whole
State is very considerably reduced. The regular lobster fishermen have
been steadily increasing the number of their pots for several years
past. They have found this an absolute necessity in order to catch as
many lobsters now as they caught twenty or thirty years ago. It is not
unusual now to find one of the regular fishermen handling as high as
100 pots, and sometimes even 125, when a few years ago 25 and 50 pots
was a large number. This does not take into account his reserve stock
of pots, which it is necessary to have on hand in order to replace
those damaged or lost.


[Illustration: Fishermen operating their pots]



BAIT.