l'.l 



'l'luiii,i;li I li:i\(' carrit'il oii u\\ iuvestigatiouy tlir(iiij;li sevcral years. jiml 

 had tlic most ready lielp from tisliermen and fishmoiigers, I have, as above 

 meiilioiKtd, nof sacceeded in Jinding males of stiver eels under c. 29 dm., and 

 none hir(/er thint c. 48 dm.: I have seen no yellotc males larger than c. 44 

 dm., I'iit I liave seen theui so small tliat it has barely been just possible to 

 deeide tiie male sex. 



Ilow it is in tliis refrard witli tho >Fieslnvater Kel in a Ripe Conrlitiont 

 raiiglit 12 Knglisih miles soutli of Eddystone, and nientioned liy 11'. L. ('(ildi-rinidil 

 »Ann. Mafi. Nat. Hist ^612 1893«, p. 35, I cannot tell, as the diameter of the egsrs 

 is not stated; ue are only told that the eggs are > appari'ntly ijiiite readi/ fn drup< 

 . . . >Jiniccv('f< . . it)w nuclear memhrme wcis still disthicfly visible'. 



I must therefore lemain doulrtful as to these breeding eels, mentiuned hy 

 I-idlhkc and Caldericood, as also with respect to a numl>er of other cases in whicli, 

 for instance, the breeding of the eels has been observed iu fresh water, etc, anil 

 whii'li I tliinlc it unnecessary to mention any further liere. 



An eel which is mentioned by .4. Feddersen in »Dansk Fiskeriforenings Med- 

 lemsblad« 1894, p. 46G, and of which it is said that >it lies near to look upon it 

 as a spcnt feuiale« I shall here mention somewhat closer, as Mr. A. Feddersen at 

 iiiy request has lieen kind enough to permit me to examine it. 



Its remarkalily emaciated appearance is evidently the most striking thing in 

 fhis eel; for its bones are not brittle, as Mr. F. mentions; it is only the loosoning 

 nf t«o vertebræ by the bending together of the thin tail, which made Mr. F. think 

 so, and as to the »emptiness« of the ovaries, a ndcro.scopical examination of them 

 shoxved that they contain many eggs, chiefly of the same size and outer ai)pearance 

 as those of other frogmonthed eels of this size (65 ctni.j. It cannot l)e denied, 

 liowever, that the fatty substance in the ovaries, and in the whole eel, was re- 

 diieed to a minimum, which, together with the bad state of preservation, gave the 

 interior parts a somewhat uncommou ap]iearance. If tlie eel ha<l spawned, we 

 might either have expected to see the ovaries quite empty of eggs, or among the 

 reniaining ones have been able to point out larger eggs which were not dropped, 

 as it is common to see in spent tish ; Ijut of this I found no trace. I must say, 

 therefore, that I think we had better stick to the second possibility which Mr. F. 

 mentions: that the ccl is a >starved or sick speeimen', much the more so, as I 

 have observed that the skin has been scraped oli, and most of the scales lost, at 

 a certain place round its body, which might tend to show that the eel has some- 

 hoxv been squeezed, perhaps kept so for a long while. This hurt is (juite ditierent 

 from those which, in the form of streaks or scratches, mav be seen on many of 

 the large silver eels, which towards the end of the fishing-season are caught in 

 the Lesser and the Great Belt. Whence these »scratched« eels come, and how the 

 scrati'hes arise, I cannot tell; but it is a pheuomenon which returns yearly 

 with great regularity, and which is looked upon as indicating the a|ii)roaching 

 end of the tishingseason ; these scratched eels are not lean as the Ringkjobing- 

 eel. It lies near to ask whether the said eel is »silver' or »yellow, and we 

 might be tempted then to answer, that it is black, i. e. it is neither yellow- 

 coloured fir of a metallic lustre, and its whole appearance makes it imjiossilile to 

 deeide ljy means of the usual characters, whether it is to be referred to oue or the 

 other of these categories. 



