Retrospective Criticism: 745 



ova [eggs] to their full size, and ultimately their exclusion ; 

 that is, 1 found them within the power of a common lens, 

 becoming, by degrees, plain to the naked eye of common 

 observers, and at last the ovaria emptied. In none of these 

 could I find male organs ; but in others I found parts which 

 were like the ovaria in form and general appearance, but 

 differing in consistence, growing in different specimens, as the 

 season advanced, to a state of apparent ripeness^ and not showing 

 globular forms like the eggs at any time. I have no hesita- 

 tion in beUeving that these were male organs, and that these 

 fish are not hermaphrodite, but perfectly analogous to other 

 fish in their mode of generation. The ripe ovaria of most 

 fish are compact masses ; but those of the eel and conger are 

 two rows of transverse fringes fixed to, and nearly enveloped 

 by, mantles which are attached to the sides of the air-bladder 

 and kidneys ; and, although each contains millions of ova, it is 

 thoroughly flexible. This structure is admirably adapted to 

 the vermicular motion of these creatures. I procured the first 

 shotten congers early in September; they were then much 

 darker than usual : some were so dark as to have the blacki 

 margins of the fins obliterated. 'auiiJ^i.^afurldiJi. no/it \6 a^RO 



The first common eel that I met with' containing oVA'Visifetie^ 

 to the naked eye, was caught in July, in a stream which goes 

 into the river Parrot; I afterwards had them from that river, 

 and its estuary, in a more forward state. The shoals of elvers 

 which appear in tide rivers, early in spring, are the young of 

 the common eel. They make their appearance in the Parrot 

 early in March, advancing, tide after tide, until they are out 

 of the reach of salt water : fresh shoals go up in April and 

 May. Having passed gradually from the salt to fresh water, 

 they ascend the streams and drains, and spread themselves 

 through the inland waters, I procured the fry of the conger 

 on the 15th of March, from the rocky coast of Somerset. *P 

 believe that no eels breed in fresh water, that there ar^ 

 regular migrations of pregnant ones from inland to the sea, 

 or to the mouths of salt-water rivers, at the end of summer, 

 and of elvers from those situations to the fresh waters in- 

 spring. jq '?80tr^ >\;«Dm oawofi) 



It is not necessary to examine the largei^t eels arid cbttget^ 

 to see the ova ; the former, of 1 or 2 lbs. weight, and the 

 latter of 7 or 8, will do very well. It is strange that Sir 

 Everard Home should have considered the eel and conger as 

 the same species : the latter has thirty more vertebrae than 

 the former. — W. B. B. fV. July 28. 1832. 



The remarks by Mr. Couch, p. 313., on this interesting 

 subject, also merit studious attention. — J. D. 



