BREEDING PLACES OF THE EEL SCHMIDT 289 



well distributed throughout the North Atlantic area. I may state 

 at once, that the yield of larvae of the European eel amounted m all 

 to 120. This represents about one larva for every fourth or fifth 

 station, a result which must be considered satisfactory in view of 

 the highly primitive equipment, the short hauls, and the fact that 

 a great number of the stations were in areas where eel larvae do not 



occur. 



During the first two years (1911-12) the collections of material 

 made were chiefly from vessels sailing between the English Channel 

 and the West Indies, but the yield was generally poor, three larvae 

 from one station being the highest. An encouraging feature, how- 

 ever, was the finding of a larva only 34 mm. in length at 25° N., 51° 

 W., both from the fact that the previous minimum record (41 mm.) 

 was thereby beaten, and also because the locality of the find sug- 

 gested a place of origin even more to the south and west than we 

 had hitherto been warranted in imagining. The material, however, 

 was still too small and too sparsely distributed to give us the distinct 

 indication we desired ; indeed it is hardly too much to say that with 

 each new observation a new problem arose, demanding a solution 

 of itself, without otherwise contributing to the elucidation of the 

 matter as a whole. Consequently, when, in 1912, I published my 

 last report of the investigations at sea » I was obliged to express my- 

 self with the greatest reserve on the question of the breeding 

 grounds of the eel, despite the fact that the finds of larvae in the open 

 Atlantic Ocean had considerably increased in number as shown in 

 the chart, Plate VI, loc. cit,, 1912. In a summary which appeared in 

 Nature for August 22, 1912, I summed up the position as follows: 

 '' We can not say as yet where exactly the spawning takes place, 

 and but little more than that the spawning places must lie in the 

 Atlantic beyond the continental slope, and that they must lie in the 

 northern Atlantic." There was one point in particular which made 

 the matter difficult. As already mentioned the M. Sars had in the 

 month of June found a score of larvae, 4 to 6 cm. in length, which 

 were classed by Hjort as belonging to that year (the O group), his 

 view being that they had come into the world the previous winter 

 and spring. Our investigations, however, repeatedly gave us larvae 

 of the same size, but taken in winter and spring. Thus, for in- 

 stance, we had three specimens taken early in December not far 

 from the Azores (station 397) , measuring 43, 48, and 56 mm. ; other 

 samples taken in March and April contained specimens measuring 

 47, 49, 50, 57, and 59 mm. in length. It, therefore, seemed doubtful 



» " Danish Researches in the Atlantic and Mediterranean on the Life History of the 

 Fresh-Water Eel {Anguilla vulgaris) ," (" Internat. Revue der gesammttai Hydrobiologie 

 bnd Hydrographie," Leipzig, 1912). 



