426 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EELS AND THE EEL QUESTION. 



By M. C. MARSH, 



U. S. COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



"T T ISTOEY recites an incident in which eels played the part of an 

 -* — ■- executioner. The sentence a rich Roman, Vedius Pollio, passed 

 upon his offending slaves was, ' Away to the Muramge. ' Slave-fattened 

 eels were a Roman delicacjr, and there was probably more gastronomy 

 than justice in this edict. Ever since, and long before, for that matter, 

 eels have occupied a unique and conspicuous place in popular interest. 

 For the antiquity of their history, for the diversity of roles they have 

 played, for the many-sidedness of their career and in their importance, 

 eels rival any group of animals below the sons of Adam. 



If one were to follow eels — meaning here the common eel and 

 not the lamprey, the Murcena, or the conger, which have histories of 

 their own — backward in literature, the journey would probably reach 

 the dawn of history. It would be difficult to say where they first entered 

 written records, but that they have ever been the subject of curious 

 attention is apparent. While they doubtless first engaged man's interest 

 by way of his stomach, they were early found worthy of his intellect. 

 Aristotle, wise man of the first European civilization, who explained 

 all things, discoursed wisely and ponderously of eels, and the eel ques- 

 tion may be said to have begun with him and his contemporaries. 

 Three thousand years have passed, Aristotle is gone, but the eels and 

 the eel question are still with us and the wise men of our century still 

 concern themselves with both. 



What is here called the eel question is one upon which the last word 

 will not be said for some time to come. But it has changed its form 

 and we have it upon a rather firmer foundation than that of the 

 ancients. It began in the mystery attaching to the generation of eels. 

 They were as the leaves of the trees for numbers; but the course of 

 nature in reproducing other creatures each after its own kind did not 

 seem to be exemplified in eels. Hence the mystery. ' Eel-spawn ' was 

 of the same material as a mare's nest and pigeon's milk. 



The teachings on the subject were various. They were the offspring 

 of Jove. This belief, however, originated in the humorous reflection of 

 a Greek poet to the effect that as children of uncertain paternity were 

 ascribed to Jupiter, he must be the progenitor of eels. They were said 

 to be bred of the mud; of decaying bodies in the water; from dew, 



