REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 51 



situated in a corresponding region on the American side of the 

 Atlantic. A specimen of tlie larva of the common eel was taken by 

 the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross, November 5, 1885, 

 about one hundred miles southeast of Atlantic City, N. J. There is, 

 therefore, little reason to doubt that the eels in their autumnal 

 migration are moving toward their spawning gi'ounds, which they 

 find on the edges of the continental shelf in 500 fathoms or more of 

 water. The truth of this conclusion is further supported by other 

 considerations, such as, for instance, the fact that the large silver eels 

 are never observed moving from the sea into fresh water, and the 

 fact that no eggs or larva:; of any eel have ever been found anywhere 

 except in the places mentioned above. 



The above facts and also the fact that no sexually mature female 

 eel has ever been found, lead to the further conclusion that the eel, 

 having once reached the spawning ground, probably reproduces its 

 kind and then dies. This inference is also substantiated by the 

 above-mentioned results of Cunningham's attempts to rear ripe eels 

 in an aquarium. 



The history of the young larvse, as it has been made out by Doctor 

 Schmidt, is of very gi'eat interest. As was stated above, the larval 

 eels are found in regions where the depth of the water is about 500 

 fathoms. In such places, in May and June, the young eels, then 

 about three inches long, are to be found. They are then in the stage 

 called '^ Lepfocephalus," which is quite unlike the adult. They are 

 almost perfectly transparent, without any color spots; in shape they 

 are very much compressed, so that they have very high, ribbon-like 

 bodies; the anus is far behind; the head is extremely small, the eyes 

 are very large relatively, the snout pointed; the teeth are long, 

 slender, fang-like, and situated on the margins of the jaws and point 

 forward. During the succeeding months the changes which take 

 place result in the transformation of this strange creature into the 

 young eel. The body becomes reduced in height and expands side- 

 wise so that it loses its ribbon-like form, ''the hindmost portion of the 

 gut disappears," and the anus gradually advances forward, the head 



