THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



and lose themselves but arrive, time after time, at their 

 destination? 



When eels are born they are such tiny threads, and so 

 transparent, that they are practically invisible : only their 

 minute eyes can be seen. They are lilliputian ghosts, 

 hairs of living light, made from a substance more efficient 

 in its optical qualities than Incite : the modern plastic 

 which man uses for his aeroplane windows, reflectors and 

 beautiful ornaments. 



Great colonies of fresh-water eels spawn in the salt 

 seas south of Bermuda, in close proximity to the Sar- 

 gasso, according to the latest available evidence, but this 

 does not mean that other swarms may not spawn within 

 the gigantic wheel. All the evidence, old and new, shows 

 that the mature eels have the Sargasso as their objective 

 as they leave the rivers. 



The vast jungle-growths of that area are distinguished 

 from the surrounding sea by their rich, unexploited 

 chemical products, such as iodine, chlorine, bromine and 

 sulphur. Can it be that eels sense these chemicals, by the 

 use of modifications in their nervous systems quite un- 

 known to us? 



All forms of migration in nature are mysterious and 

 probably insoluble from any materialistic viewpoint. 



Many ichthyologists have told the sensational story of 

 the eel's travel-cycle. The elvers — baby eels — reach the 

 coasts of Europe in autumn or winter, when they have 

 grown to a length of about two inches. In many places 

 along the European coasts they are caught with sieves, 

 boiled in salted water, and eaten, usually with a sauce or 

 vinegar. Those that escape penetrate the rivers into fresh 

 water, where they seek and prefer an area of hard ground, 

 rock or flint, to one of tangled seaweed : a remarkable 

 practice in view of the fact that it involves a preference 

 for surroundings so completely different from the Sar- 

 gassum environment in which it was born. The change 

 from salt to fresh water is but one of the drastic changes 



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