152 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND "WILDLIFE SERVICE 



traced, chiefly by the persevering researches of 

 the Danish scientist, Johannes Schmidt. 64 Now 

 we know that the life history of the eel is just the 

 antithesis of that of the salmon, shad, and alewife, 

 for eels breed far out at sea, but make their growth 

 either in estuarine situations or in fresh water. 



The young elvers, averaging from 2 to 3% inches 

 in length, appear along our shores in spring. As 

 yet we have few data on the exact date of their 

 arrival on the Gulf of Maine coast. They appear 

 as early as March at Woods Hole; by mid- or 

 late April both in Narragansett Bay and in Passa- 

 maquoddy Bay at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, 

 while Welsh encountered a tremendous run in 

 Little River, near Gloucester, on May 5, 1913, 

 suggesting that they may be expected in the 

 mouths of most Gulf of Maine streams during 

 that month. And they are found ascending 

 streams in the Bay of Fundy region during the 

 summer. A run may last for a month or more in 

 one stream, only for a few days in another. And 

 there is a noticeable segregation even at this early 

 stage, some of the elvers remaining in tidal 

 marshes, in harbors, in bays back of barrier 

 beaches, and in other similar situations, some even 

 along the open coast, especially where there are 

 beds of eel grass (Zostera); while others go into 

 fresh water, some of them ascending the larger 

 rivers for tremendous distances. 65 



It is now generally believed that most of the 

 eels that are caught in fresh water are females. 

 But some of the females remain in salt marshes 

 and harbors, to judge from the large size of many 

 of the eels that are caught there. And nothing is 

 known as to what preference the males of the 

 American eel may show in this respect. 



It is no wonder that the ability of the elvers to 

 surmount obstacles as they run upstream is 

 proverbial, for they clamber over falls, dams, and 

 other obstructions, even working their way up 

 over damp rocks as Welsh saw them doing in 

 Little River, where they were so plentiful on May 

 5 and 7, 1913, that he caught 1,500 in one scoop 



« The life history of the eel Is presented In more detail than Is possible here 

 by Schmidt (PhUos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, Series B, vol. 211 (1922) 

 1923, pp. 179-208, summarized In Nature, vol. 110, 1922, p. 716), and by Cun- 

 ningham (Nature, vol. 113, 1924, p. 199). See also Schmidt (Rapp. et Proc- 

 Verb. Cons. Perm. Internat. Explor. Mer, vol. 5, No. 4, 1906, pp. 137-204, 

 pis. 7-13); for a popular account see Smith (Nat. Qeog. Mag., vol. 24, No. 10, 

 October 1913, p. 1140). 



u Eels are native In Lake Ontario which they reach by way of the St. 

 Lawrence River; and up the Mississippi drainage systems even as far as 

 North Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania. 



of a small dip net and 545 with a few grabs of 

 his bare hand. Elvers in equal multitudes have 

 often been described in other streams, American 

 as well as European. Eels can live out of water 

 so long as to give rise to the story that they often 

 travel overland. There is no positive evidence 

 for this. But Sella 6S has proved, by experiments 

 with European eels marked so as to be recognizable 

 if recaught, that they can carry out journeys as 

 long as 31 miles (50 kilometers) along underground 

 waterways. Doubtless it is this ability that 

 explains the presence of eels in certain ponds that 

 have no visible outlet nor inlet, a fact often 

 attested. 



It is true in a general way that eels seek muddy 

 bottom and still water, as has been said so com- 

 monly. But this is not always so whether in salt 

 water or in fresh. Thus the rocky pool at the 

 outer end of the outlet from Little Harbor, 

 Cohasset, on the south shore of Massachusetts 

 Bay, is a good place to catch eels; and large ones 

 are only too common in swiftflowing, sandy trout 

 streams on Cape Cod ; we have had one follow and 

 nibble at the trout we were dragging behind us 

 on a line. The fact is, they can live and thrive 

 wherever food is to be had, which applies to them 

 in estuarine situations and in fresh water. 



No animal food, living or dead is refused, and 

 the diet of the eels in any locality depends less on 

 choice than on what is available. Small fish of 

 many varieties, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, and 

 smaller Crustacea, together with refuse of any 

 kind (for they are scavengers) make up the bulk 

 of the diet in salt, estuarine, and brackish water. 

 Being very greedy, any bait will do to catch an 

 eel. They are chiefly nocturnal in habit, as every 

 fisherman knows, usually lying buried in the mud 

 by day to venture abroad by night. But eels, 

 large and small, are so often seen swimming about, 

 and so often bite by day that this cannot be laid 

 down as a general rule. 



Eels tolerate a wide range of temperature. But 

 it is common knowledge that those inhabiting the 

 salt marshes and estuaries of our Gulf, and its 

 tributary streams, mostly lie inactive in the mud 

 during the winter. 



Eels grow slowly. Hildebrand and Schroeder 67 

 concluded from a series of measurements taken at 

 different seasons in lower Chesapeake Bay that those 



* Mem. R. Comlt. Talassogr. Ital., vol. 158, 1929. 

 »' Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 43, 1928, p. 114. 



