BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 103 



themselves might here and there be seen swimming eels of greater size, 

 but none of them were jirobably more than 8 inches in length. All of 

 them, even the smallest, were dark colored. Tiiis wonderful procession 

 of fishes continued unbroken and of the same density throughout the 

 whole of the day on which it was first observed, and continued also uj)ou 

 the following- da>j. On the morning of the third day, however, not one 

 of the young' eels was to be seen." 



Similar observations have been made at Wittenberg, on the Elbe. 

 Kuppfer observed great quantities of young eels, of about 3 centimeters 

 in length, in the brackish water of the Eider, at Freiderickstadt; so also 

 did Yon Stemann. 



" Every year," writes the latter, "from April to the end of June, there 

 appear great masses of young eels, which are present in large schools 

 toward the Upper Eider, seeking in every way to pass each other. In 

 Ajiril the first eels show themselves generally singly : cold weather has 

 evidently kept them back up to this time ; since this year, until to-day, 

 no ascent whatever has taken place, and now the approach of the great 

 schools is beginning. Where the current is feeble, the procession is 

 broad ; but where the eels encounter a strong current — near a mill — it 

 becomes small, and presses close to the shore, in order to overcome the 

 currents. The little animals swim eagerly and rapidly along near the 

 banks until they find a place over which they decide to climb. Here 

 they lie in great heaps, and appear to await the rising- of the tide, which 

 makes their ascent easier. The tide having risen, the whole mass begins 

 to separate without delay ; eel after eel climbs up on the steep wall of 

 rock, determined to reach the little pools, at the height of 15 or 20 inches, 

 into which some of the water from the Upper Eider has found its way. 

 Into these holes the little animals creep, and have yet to travel a dis- 

 tance of 40 or 50 feet under the roadway before they can reach the 

 Upper Eider. Another detachment betakes itself to the sluice-ways, 

 and clings to the cracks in the wood ; also around the mills their ascent 

 may be observed, especially about sunrise."* 



Davy sends a similar account from Ireland. He was a witness of the 

 ascent of young eels, or " elvas," at Ballyshannon, at the end of July, 

 1823 ; he si)eaks of the mouth of the river under the fall being "black- 

 ened by millions of little eels about as long as a finger, which were 

 constantly urging their way up the moist rock beside of the fall." 

 "Thousands," he adds, "died; but their bodies, remaining, served as a 

 ladder by which the rest could make their way ; and I saw some ascend- 

 ing even peri)endicular stones, making their way through wet moss or 

 adhering to some eels that had died in the attempt."* 



* Professor Benecke had in his possession some of the young eels, ■which escaped 

 from all the vessels in which they were confined, and even climbed to the ceiling of 

 his room. 



* Eel-fairs in Connecticut. — Fresh-water eels may be canght in large numbers, 

 in weirs along the lake streams, when descending at the fall equinox to deposit their 

 spawn in some lower region, and in the following August their offspring, from three 



