BREEDING PLACES OP THE EEL SCHMIDT 287 



p. 284) . As to determining the age of these larvee there was nothing 

 of any certainty to go upon. 



A highly interesting and suggestive article on the eel larva) from 

 the cruise of the M. Sars, by J. Hjort, appeared in Nature, 1910 

 ( " Eel Larvae from tlic Central Atlantic " ) J From this it appeared 

 that forty-four eel I'arvse were taken during the cruise, twenty-three 

 to the west of Europe (north of 40° N., east of 30° W.), find twenty- 

 one south and Avest of the Azores. The former ranged from 6I/2 to 

 8 cm. in length, and were thus of the same size as those I had taken 

 on board the Thor. The rest, however, were considerably smaller, 

 viz, 4-6 cm. long (one was 41 mm., three were close on 5 cm., and tlie 

 remainder between 5 'and 6 cm.). The smaller larvce were taken at 

 five stations situated between lat. 31° and 40° N. and between long. 

 30° and 48° W. According to Hjort's interpretation, the twenty-one 

 smaller larvoe represent the young of that year (the O group), the 

 larger ones those of the previous year (the I group). This being so, 

 the first-year larvss should by June be 0-51/2 cm. long, 'and the full- 

 grown larvse of about Ti/o cm. length should be about a year older. 

 Without venturing to assert anything definite on the basis of so small 

 a material, Hjort surmised that the breeding grounds of the eel 

 might be in the Central Atl'antic, between the Azores and Bermuda. 



The eel larvae which, as mentioned above, I found among some 

 old collections of Leptocephali in the Zoological Museum, Copen- 

 hagen, had been procured by the Danish Capt. A. Andrea, a zealous 

 collector of pelagic fauna, somewhere about 1865. There were only 

 three specimens, of which one, taken near Florida Strait, proved to 

 belong to the American species, the two others being larvae ox 

 Angidlla vulgaris. The smaller of these measured 41 mm. and was 

 taken in the vicinity of Madeira (lat. 34° 20' N., long. 18° 30' W.) ; 

 the larger, 53 mm. in length, was found considerable farther west, 

 lat. about 30° N., long, about 32° W. 



A comparison of these two stations with the five from the M. Sars, 

 did not make it easier to determine the origin of the larvae; rather, 

 indeed, the reverse. The two smallest extant specimens, both 41mm. 

 in length, were taken at long. 48° W. (Hjort) and long. 18° 30' W. 

 (Andrea) respectively; that is to say, at a distance of about 1,500 

 miles one from another. If these two larvse were in the first year, 

 and had not moved any great distance from the spot where they 

 came into the world, this would mean that the breeding grounds of 

 the eel embraced the entire eastern half of the Atlantic south of the 

 xVzores. Or did they, on the other hand, indicate that there were 

 several distinct breeding-grounds, so that for instance the eels of the 



^ The Bame matei'ial was later dealt with by E. Lea, in " Murseuoid I^arvae from the 

 "Michael Sars" North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition, 1910" (Bergeu, 1913). 



