FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 83 



were intercepted on their way in to land, and since all three were on the surface we 

 may take it that "glass eels," like leptocephali, keep to the uppermost water 

 layers during their journey. 



Schmidt has suggested that the American eel is not as plentiful in actual 

 numbers as the European, arguing from the facts that its larvse have not proven 

 so common on the high seas and that the American catch of eels (about 2,000 tons) 

 is but a fraction as large as the European catch (10,000 tons annually). It is not 

 safe to draw any conclusions from the statistics, as the jimerican catch is limited 

 more by the fact that eels are not much in demand than by the available stock. 

 Eels are regularly caught in numbers in muddy bays and in estuaries at the mouths 

 of rivers all along the shores of the Gulf, the catch for 1919 being as follows: 



Pounds 



Nova Scotia shore 16, 700 



New Brunswick 8, 000 



Coast of Maine 305,050 



Coast of New Hampshire 2, 000 



Massachusetts (including south shore of Cape Cod to Buzzards Bay) 239, 991 



This suggests a total of about 400,000 pounds for the Gulf of Maine. The greater 

 part o£ the catch is made by nets and eelpots, with spears a close second, eel spear- 

 ing being carried on chiefly in late autumn and winter in tidal creeks and marshes. 



v^ -^'Tfi^ ;>- 





Fig. 34 — Slime eel iSivicnchelys parasiticus) 



33. Slime eel {Simenchelys parasiticus Gill) 



Snub-nosed eel 



Jordan and Evermann, 1S96-1900, p. 349. 



Description. — The most diagnostic charactei's of the slime eel — its eel-like form, 

 snub nose, long dorsal fin, and sliminess — have already been mentioned (p. 78). 

 It is stouter and more sway-bellied than the common eel, very soft, and with a more 

 tapering tail. The dorsal fin originates a very short distance behind the tip of the 

 pectoral when the latter is laid back against the body, and the anal runs forward on the 

 lower surface almost to the vent, which is situated about midway of the body. The 

 head is much shorter than in either e,el or conger; the mouth very small, gaping back 



