50 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Again, we are told that eels with ripe ova have never been 

 obtained in rivers, and if they don't breed in the sea, where do 

 they breed? The answer must be either that they have no ova 

 like fish, or else that they retire somewhere at a certain period to 

 breed. 



When a large swamp goes dry "we find regular patches of eels 

 occurring in burrows several yards in length, and you can dig out 

 a patch of burrows, generally getting one to three eels in each 

 burrow, with a total of five or six dozen in the patch. Then 

 for some distance there will be no eels, then another patch, and 

 so on. Now it seems most likely that the eels breed in these 

 burrows. 



On draining a swamp near the Barwon River, a lot of weeds 

 were put in the drain to keep back the fish, etc. At the end of 

 the swamp were found a few very big eels, and a large number of 

 white, worm-like things just about an inch in length and about as 

 thick as a thread. These were very eel-like in their movements, 

 and though I am not sure that they were eels, still it is possible 

 that they were the second stage of an eel's life. 



There is another phase of the eel question which puzzles me. 

 Many years ago my attention was drawn to the presence of eels 

 in waterholes difiicult of access from any river. The explanation 

 usually given is that eels leave the streams and go across country 

 at night to the waterholes; but to prove that this view is in- 

 correct I wish to record the following facts : — 



Near Airey's Inlet there is a swamp, which I happened to visit 

 when overflowing. A man had fixed an eel net across the over- 

 flow, and at the sides stakes laced with brushwood, so that no 

 eels could get by. He caught large numbers of eels in the net, 

 but none came up the overflow, which ran across loose sand, and 

 only a small portion of it reached the river. Some years later this 

 swamp was cleared out. The last time it overflowed was seven 

 years ago, when the water ran into the sand and did not reach the 

 river. When that swamp went dry last summer one man dug 

 eighty eels out of their burrows in one day, while others got 

 large numbers. Now, how did these eels get there ? 



On the plains on the west side of the Barwon River, over tens 

 of thousands of acres, eels are found in nearly all the waterlioles, 

 and these holes are in all sorts of situations. For eels to go 

 across country to all these holes thousands of eels would be 

 necessary, and numbers would be stranded in small swamps and 

 crab-holes. I have had occasion to ride over this country before, 

 and just as these holes were drying up, and except just near the 

 overflow of a waterhole I have never seen an eel so stranded. 

 Many people whom I have questioned tell me the same thing. 



Lake Murdeduke, in the Winchelsea district, has an area of 

 about 2,800 acres, and has not overflowed for at any rate two 



