290 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



whether Hjort's interpretation of his specimens taken in summer as 

 being first year larva) could be correct, since if this were the case 

 one would have expected to find much smaller specimens in winter. 

 There was, however, the possibility that both Hjort's summer speci- 

 mens and our winter specimens were in their first 3'ear, but if so, 

 it had to be presumed that a regular production of ova and larvse 

 took place all the year round, so that not the season, but the localit}', 

 i. e., the distance from tlie site of production, would be responsible 

 for the size of the larvse. There were, however, several facts which 

 spoke against the theor}^ of such uninterruj)ted production, as, for 

 instance, the periodicity in the occurrence and metamorphosis of the 

 larva) which I had discovered on board the Uxor in 1905-1 90(5. 



The net result, then, of our investigations by the close of 1912 was 

 that a great deal more research work would be needed, since the 

 new data obtained had practically raised new difficulties in the way 

 of an interpretation — as, indeed, often haf)pens when an investiga- 

 tion has passed beyond tlie earliest stages, when the paucity of 

 facts gives freer play to the imagination. 



The year 1913 was marked by important progress. Not only did 

 our fishing cargo vessels send us in richer niaterial, but we suc- 

 ceeded in getting the little schooner Margrethe., belonging to the 

 Vendsyssel Packing Co., of Copenhagen, equipped and sent out on 

 a cruising expedition over the Atlantic, with a supply of nets, etc., 

 for pelagic work. The investigations were carried out during the 

 months of August-December along the following three lines: (1) 

 From the Faroes to southwest of the Azores (about 28° N., 40° W.) ; 

 (2) thence to the Newfoundland Banks; and (3) from there to the 

 West Indies. The yield was 714 larvse of the European eel, besides 

 a small number (24) of the American. We had now at last obtained 

 a large amount of material from the open Atlantic Ocean, and the 

 study of this yielded important results. It was very significant, in 

 the first place, that the larvae increased in iiumbers from east to west, 

 the greatest quantities being taken west of long. 50° W. In this 

 area the Margrethe succeeded in taking no less than 154 specimens 

 at one station (station 1040) with a net 2 m. in diameter at opening, 

 and one of the sailing vessels fisliing for us, the schooner Agent 

 Petersen^ took 24 specimens in one haul with a small net only 1 m. 

 in diameter (station 765). By way of comparison, it may be men- 

 tioned that our greatest number of larvse per haul in the eastern 

 Atlantic, with the far more intensively working Thor^ was 70. 



No less interesting was the size of the larvse at the different sta- 

 tions. The following representative stations will serve to illustrate 

 this: 



