23 



iiiuv soe already amung tlie smaller eels somc wliidi evidently begin fo get 

 tlie dress, though they will not tiiiisli it quite till next year. Among the large 

 t'emalc eels, on the other hånd, we tind at nny senson specimens which are in 

 transition hetween yellow and sil ver eels. I have got the impression that 

 these large eels are a niuch longer time in getting their breeding-dress than 

 the small ones; perhaps it lasts even several years. 



It would be interesting to exaniine this by placing eels in ponds, where 

 there are no eels previously, as also to examine what becoines of the silver 

 eels when we prevent their migration to the sea, whether they will commence 

 eating again, or whether they will die. The latter is suggested perhaj)« in a 

 note in »Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. 1894, p. 183«. 1 know the note only i'rom an 

 extract; it is said to treat of sick and old eels trom a warm lake wliieh has 

 no (?) connection with the sea. 



E. Blii>icli(U(L in »Lefi poisnons d'emix (loitces de lo France« 1866, pj). 

 498 — 501, meutious au eel which for 37 years has belonged to the Desmarests. 

 E. Desmaresf, who was a naturalist at Paris, informed Blanchard that this 

 eel was bought in 1828; it measured, in 18(j;j, l,;.^, — l,4,j meter, and had since 

 1828 gi'own about ',,,,. It goes on eating, though not mueh and not at all sea- 

 sons; in the foresummer it generally gets migrating propensities and wants 

 to jump out of its reservoir. 



In 1828 then this eel Iias already beeu c. 30 inches long, a very cousi- 

 derable eel ; it has for niany years beeu but little voracious, and must ceiiaiuly 

 have beeu a silver eel, what its migrating propensities seem also to imply. 

 It appears then that such siher eels, wlien they are preveuted from emi- 

 grating to the sea, eau eontinuc to eat and to groiv, aud it will be difficult 

 l>erhaps also in any other way to explaiu the occurrence of very considerable 

 silver eels (all females of course) in ba.sius of fi-esh water ofteu of slight extent. 

 At all piaces where the tishery is carried on very iutenseh' these large eels 

 seem to become rarcr, and at la.st quite to disappear; simply, I suppose, be- 

 cause they are not permitte<l to grow old and large before they are tislied. 



On the Opinions of earlier Authors. 



It is (juite a remarkable thing indeed that is has not lougago beeu point- 

 ed out that the eel gets such a breeding-dress, particularly when we remember 



