614 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



16.— THE EELS, (MTJR^NOIDEI.) 



This group comprises long-bodied, snake-like fish of prey, without 

 ventral fins. To this family belongs the river-eel, (Anguilla vulgaris,) 

 which lives both in fresh and salt water, and flourishes particularly in 

 peat-bog marshes. The manner in which it propagates its species is not 

 yet thoroughly known. 



The young of those eels which spawn in the sea ascend the rivers 

 in spring by millions, and frequently go to running and stagnant waters 

 which are far distant from the sea. 



The ascent of the young eels into fresh water, called montata in Italy 

 and montee in France, lasts three or four months in the spring-season. 

 Their return to the sea (calata) is made from October to December, 

 usually not until they have lived for several years in fresh water. It 

 invariably takes place during very stormy and dark nights. On the 

 Austrian coasts and in Italy, many fishermen at the mouths of the rivers 

 are employed in catching the migrating eels, which in some places are 

 by means of special canals led into entirely closed caves. The river- 

 eel spawns during summer on sandy and gravelly banks, where the 

 eggs are hatched in October, and where the young remain till April or 

 May. 



The flesh of the eel is valued very highly, forms the exclusive flesh- 

 food of large populations, and, salted, smoked, or pickled, is an im- 

 portant article of trade. The eel is found in the larger part of Europe, 

 especially in all those rivers and standing waters which are connected 

 with the Baltic, the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, 

 and the Adriatic; but it is entirely wanting in those lakes and rivers 

 which send their waters into the Black Sea. 



As soon as that care which it deserves is given to the eel-fishery, and 

 especially to its culture in our waters, this fish would with us, just 

 as in England, become a cheap food for the whole people. Numerous 

 little ponds, with marshy bottom, which at present are useless, and 

 even injurious, might be populated with eels, and would, with some 

 care, yield a rich harvest, if, during the first weeks of spring and in the 

 latter part of autumn, they were properly fed. 



17. — THE CARP FAMILY, (CYPRINOIDEI.) 



The Cyprinoids are distinguished from all other fish by small tooth- 

 less mouths, the well-known carp-mouth. The greater number of our 

 fish belong to this family ; among them the numerous varieties of the 

 bleak, the carp, the loach, the barbel, the tench, &c, which chiefly inhabit 

 the fresh waters of the temperate zone, and " which are valued in 

 places where there are no better fish," (Vogt.) 



By transferring the various kinds of carp into waters where they 

 were not originally found, by different modes of life to which they have 



