THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 295 



which are not relieved by changing the fish from salt water to fresh. Perhaps 

 the salinity of the water in some localities is too low, and relief might be obtained 

 by supplying sea water of normal ocean density. 



The young and larval form of the Conger is a curious, elongate, transparent, 

 band-like creature with a minute head, a very small mouth and with the lateral line, 

 belly, and anal fin dotted with black points. 



An individual nearly 3 feet long was captured with a hand line by A. P. Latto in 

 the ocean, near Southampton, L. I., August 3, 1898, while fishing for sea bass and 

 scup. 



In the Woods Hole region, according to Dr. Smith, " it comes in July and 

 remains until fall ; very common for several years, but rather rare formerly. Fisher- 

 men as a rule do not distinguish it from the common eel. A few are taken in traps 

 and with lines, but many large ones, weighing from 8 pounds upwards, are caught 

 in lobster pots. A specimen in the collection weighs 10 pounds. One caught on a 

 line at Falmouth, August 30, 1897, weighed 12 pounds. The smallest observed are 

 15 to 20 inches long." 



Mitchill declared the flesh to be very dainty eating. DeKay said the flesh has a 

 peculiar unsavory taste. He discovered that it is a vicious animal, snapping when 

 captured at everything near it. In France the Conger Eel is among the cheapest and 

 least esteemed of the food fishes. 



The observations of Dr. Otto Hermes, Director of the Berlin Aquarium, on the 

 habits and the reproduction of the Conger Eel are of very great interest. Refer- 

 ence is made to them by Goode in Fish and Fishery Industries of United States, 

 I, p. 657, and two figures copied from drawings of Dr. Hermes are given in the text. 

 The ovary of the Conger, says Dr. Hermes, is developed in captivity, and this is 

 often the cause of the death of the eel. In a Conger which died in the Berlin 

 Aquarium the ovaries protruded very extensively, and a specimen in the Frankfort 

 Aquarium burst on account of the extraordinary development of the ovaries. The 

 ovaries of this eel, which weighed 22^ pounds, themselves weighed 8 pounds, and 

 the number of eggs was about 3,300,000. The want of a natural opening for the 

 escape of the eggs was evidently in this case the cause of death. In the fall of 1879 

 Dr. Hermes received a number of small sea eels taken in the vicinity of Havre. 

 These eels ate greedily and grew rapidly. Only one was tardy in its development, 

 so that it could easily be distinguished from the rest. This one died June 20, 1880, 

 and was examined the same day. It proved to be a sexually mature male and 

 served to clear up some very doubtful problems in the reproduction of the species, 

 as well as its ally, the Common Eel. 



