21 



as tlie eels at Faaborg are dashed straight against land by the waves, and 

 may go, now north^vards, now southwards. Farther up in the Little Belt, on 

 the contrary, all traps fish from the south. Many eels of course migrate 

 from the fjords of Sleswick through the Little Belt; but at Sleswick there is 

 everywhere rather deep water, and from this reason there is not mucli 

 Zostera. The conditions there are somewhat similar to our own ou the shores 

 of the Little Belt, particularly in the southern part of this sea. The yellow 

 eels, liere, are large, and the result is that the silver eels are large too; 

 c. 20 generally go to make 16 Danish pounds (8 Kilo). In tliis respect they 

 differ very mucli from the eels in the Great Belt, wliich, on an average, are 

 much smaller. The different size of the eels in the two Belts indicates also, 

 decidedly, that we have liere, on the main, to do with local conditions. If 

 there came from the Baltic a large collective migration of the eels, the size 

 would scarcely vary in this manner; but now the size of the silver eels fits 

 in pretty exactly with that of the yellow ones in our seas. 



That the silver eels at one place are, on an average, larger than at 

 another, depends, as I have formerly sliown, on the respective sizes of the 

 two sexes. Male silver eels are always much smaller than female silver eels. 

 It is a faet that by far the greater number of the eels in the Little Belt are 

 now females; but south of Zealand (especially in Bøgestrømmen) the males 

 form the majority. Tliis faet aloue explains the above mentioned differences 

 in the size of the silver eels in the two Belts. 



We might imagine that the eels, when they had passed the narrows of 

 the Little Belt, eontinued their migration northwards along the eastern shore 

 of Jutland. But they scarcely follow this farther than Vejlefjord. As the 

 chart shows, there comes here a considerable stop in the distribution of the 

 traps, and, moreover, the eels which are caught north of Hou and at the 

 southern peninsulas of Djursland, are not so large as the eels in the Little 

 Belt. The eels up here come from Horsensfjord rather, and the large area 

 of Zostera outside the same, as also from the other coves and fjords of Jut- 

 land. For here also a great number of eels are living, and here also the 

 seining is flourishing. 



What we find of eel-trap fishery north of Grenaa is but of Httle interest, 

 and has no connection with our other seas. Along the whole northern shore 

 of Djursland there are uo traps at all. At the mouths of Mariager and 

 Randers fjords, on the other hånd, there is rather a considerable eel-fishery 

 in the autumn; but it is almost exclusively yellow eels which are caught, and 

 they are fished from the north, going into the fjords: they are, consequently, 



