460 THE EEL FAMILY. 



facts. The investigation of the life-history of the eel, unlike 

 that of other marine fishes, has suffered from a plethora of 

 workers whose faculty of imagination has enabled them to play 

 upon the credulity of others, so that it behoves those who are 

 attempting to explore these most intricate of nature's paths, 

 the life-histories of the marine food-fishes, to demand that 

 every step in advance should be made by the aid of well-proved 

 observations. 



