76 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



This being the case, as might be supposed, there are many inland 

 lakes and streams of the United States in which this fish does not 

 occur ; for instance, in the chain of the great lakes above Niagara Falls 

 and in the upper waters of other streams in which there are consider- 

 able obstructions. The cutting of canals in various parts of the country 

 has, however, produced a great change in their distribution ; for in- 

 stance, it is stated by Mitchell * that eels were unknown in the Passaic 

 above the Great Falls until a canal was cut at Paterson, since which 

 time they have become plentiful in the upi)er branches of that river. 

 They have also been placed in many new localities by the agency of man. 

 Concerning this Mr. Milner remarks : 



" The eel {Anguilla hostoniensis), appreciated in some localities and 

 much vilified in others, is another species that has been frequently 

 transplanted. It is iiretty evident that it never existed naturally in the 

 chain of great lakes any higher up than Niagara Falls, although speci- 

 mens have been taken in Lakes Erie and Michigan. Their existence 

 there is with little doubt traceable to artificial transportation. 



"A captain of a lake vessel informed me that it was quite a common 

 thing some years ago to carry a quantity of live eels in a tub on the 

 deck of a vessel while on Lake Ontario, and they were often taken in 

 this manner through the Welland Canal. He said that it was a fre- 

 quent occurrence on his vessel when they had become tired of them, or 

 had procured better fishes, to turn the remainder alive into the waters of 

 Lake Erie. 



" In 1871 Mr. A. Booth, a large dealer of Chicago, had an eel of four 

 pounds weight sent him from the south end of Lake Michigan, and a 

 few weeks afterward a fisherman of Ahneepee, Wis., nearly 200 miles 

 to the northward, wrote him that he had taken a few eels at that point. 

 It was a matter of interest to account for their presence, and a long 

 time afterward we learned that some parties at Eaton Rapids, Mich., on 

 a tributary of the lake, had imported a number of eels and put them in 

 the stream at that place, from which they had doubtless made their way 

 to the points where they were taken. The unfortunate aquarium -car in 

 June, 1873, by means of the accident that occurred at Elkhorn River, 

 released a number of eels into that stream, and about four thousand 

 were placed by the United States commission in the Calumet River at 

 South Chicago, 111., two hundred in Dead River, Waukegan, 111., and 

 three thousand eight hundred in Fox River, Wisconsin." t 

 They have since been successfully introduced into California. 



YI. GUNTHER ON THE LIFE-HABITS OF THE EEL. 



Concerning the life-history of the eel much has been written, and 

 there have been many disputes even so late as 1880. In the article upon 



* Transactions Lit. and Phil. Soc. New York, I, p. 48. 

 t Report U. S. Fish Commission, p. 2, 1874, 526. 



