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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



the Danish seamen who contributed thereto. On some few occasions 

 we were able to work more systematically and with the assistance of 

 our own staff, as for instance in 1913, with the schooner Margrethe 

 belonging to the Vendsyssel Packing Co., and in 1920 and 1921, with 

 the schooner Dana, owned by the East Asiatic Co. In both these 

 cases, despite the fact that the vessels had not the special equipment 

 of the Thor, important results were obtained, and the owners, who 

 generously placed them at our disposal for the work, have highly de- 

 served the thanks of science. In 1921 and 1922 further investiga- 

 tions were carried out from the new State-owned research steamer 



Dana II (plate 2). Figure 3 

 shows a selection of the Danish 

 stations, 1903-1922. 



I will now give an account of 

 our investigations at sea, touch- 

 ing very lightly upon the earlier 

 ones, which are dealt with in 

 detail in the reports already 

 published. 



Following on cruises made in 

 1903-1905 with the Thor, I was 

 able to show (1906)* that full- 

 grown eel larvae were found in 

 quantities in the Atlantic west 

 of Europe throughout the en- 

 tire range from the Faroes to 

 Brittany, west of the 1,000 

 meter line. They were, how- 

 ever, not found east of this line; 



2. — European eel (Anguilla vulgaris) i- 6., not OVer the COastal banks, 



nor in the North Sea, the Eng- 

 lish Channel, the Baltic, etc. 

 In June, 1905, the larvae were 

 full grown, averaging 75 mm. in length (cf. fig. 2). They oc- 

 curred pelagically in the upper water-layers, and were all un- 

 metamorphosed. From these investigations I was able to conclude 

 that all the eels of Northern and Western Europe come from 

 the Atlantic, and that they come from the sea beyond the coastal 

 banks. It was thus evident that the eel — as also, by way, the 

 conger — occupies an exceptional position among food fishes, inas- 

 much as I had been able to show that the minute larvae of most of 

 these species belonged to the coastal banks west of the shores of 



*" Contributions to the Life History of the Eel (Anguilla vulgaris)," ("Rapports et 

 Procfes-Verbaux du Conseil International iwur I'Exploration de la Mer," vol. 5, Copen- 

 bagem, 1906). 



Fig, 



Sizes of larvae, Il-group, at stations 

 southwest of Ireland ; Thor, June, 1905. 

 Lengths in millimeters. 



