24 



there. — From well-known people on the shores of the Baltic I have tried 

 to get information as to the numerousness of the eel at various piaces. At 

 St. Petersburg and in the Gulf of Finland it does not seem to be numerous; 

 in the Gulf of Riga it is found only on the shores of Osel. In the river 

 Diina scarcely any eels are found; but they are found in a few fresh-water 

 lakes. In Esthonia there is "ein sehr grosser Aalfang" of 20 — 30,000 eels 

 a year, consequently a fishery only about the size of that in the inner part 

 of Koldingfjord, or the like. A very well-known export firm at Stettin informs 

 me that, according to its experieuce, eel-traps are not used either in tlie 

 Gulf of Riga or in the Gulf of Finland, and on the inner shores of the 

 German part of the Baltic Sea only at Danzic and the Isle of Riigen. But it 

 is well-known that eel-trap fishery is carried on along the ^hores of Sleswick 

 and Holstein. At Bornholm eels are fished in traps, but the fishery is only 

 a matter of some hundred kroner. — In the open Baltic Sea the water is 

 too deep: the eel eannot thrive there. Thus it is only in the German Haffs, 

 at the Isle of Riigen, in Sleswick, and in Sweden that the eel occurs in 

 great numbers. 



To judge from all these tliiugs, the Baltie is not by far so rich in eels, 

 as we might have expected. That tliis is connected witli the faet that it is 

 difficult for the tender fry to reach in so far, from out the sea, is evident. 

 While we can find every spring multitudes of the ascending small pellucid 

 young eels on our shores, they seem to decrease in number as they are 

 going into the Baltic, but at tlie same time to increase in size. I liave thus 

 letters before me from the Intendant of Fislieries at Stockholm, and the 

 Inspector of Fisheries in Finland, informing me that the smallest eels tliey 

 have found in North Sweden and in Finland are, respectively, 25—40 ctm. 

 (972 — I5V2 Danish inches) and 35 — 36 ctm. (13 — 14 inches) long. In there, 

 as it seems, the tender fry ("elvers") is missing; I suppose, because it must 

 migrate the long way from the salt sea. 



Dr. Tryhom has, in 1891, (Circular Nr. 1 des deutschen Fischerei- 

 Vereins p. 30) meutioned a find of eels, between 8 and 13 ctm. long, in the 

 northmost parts of the Baltic. But though I have mentioned this find as 

 particularly iuterestiug, in Report I of the Danish Biological Station, 1890, 

 and shown that these eels must be supposed to be 1 year older than the 

 elvers on our shores, and though the whole eel-question since 1890 has been 

 eagerly discussed all over Europe, only few new fiuds of elvers from the 

 inner parts of the Baltic have been made public, as far as I know. Even 

 if the scientists liad not found thcm, the boys wouid certainly have done so. 



