ilic (/i((/i( /■'iii'Ik (lis ]\'(iii(/ri(iiils (Icssi'ii l'auiiiiKj^fitrbc ist«. Thuy do uol 

 trv, lidwever, to coniiCLt tliese stateiuciits witli the forms or species of eels set 

 u|) lu- the uutlinry, tliey lio not try to tiiid out liow »the frof^-inouthed eel« 

 is to l)L' uiiderstood, uud tliev du not know tliat the yellow and silver (geibe 

 und graue) eels ditt'er in auiny otlier regards than the colour. Still in 1887 

 when Mohiiif' in his essay on the sexual organs of the eels in »5ter Bericht 

 Konini. ^S'issenseh. Unters. deutsch. Meere«, j>. j). 127 — 157, again returns 

 to the same thing. he speaks hut very brietiy of Faaningsfurhe, and seenis, 

 like Lc/Ii, to niean that just tlie gray eolovu' is charaoteristie in tiiis respect 

 (ep. (tiitr), and iie even mentions that this colour appears in dots. 



Tliougii our various forms of eels have thus for many ycars already 

 bceu looked ui)on as belonging to one species, and though the migrating form 

 only (the tishermen's »silver eel«) was supposed to take part in the propagation, 

 wliile the yellow eel on the other hånd was stationary, nobody has directly 

 irritieu that it is so before Mr. F. R. T. Letli, the lawyerV'') (see »Fiskeri- 

 tidende ^ 1882 [). 393 seq.); lie has. more than Jncohif, represented the tisher- 

 men's view of the matter, and he has, moreover, got tiie idea that one of the 

 forms they have adopted represents the eel in growing-dress, the other the 

 eel in breedingdress, though certainly without any further satisfactory ex- 

 plaiiation. 1 liope tliat the above statements may be regarded as sucli. 



If therefore in futui'c any one will set up more t-hau one European 

 species of the eel, he must take care that it embraces both males and females, 

 l)oth yellow and silver eels. and that it is founded on something else than the 

 breadth of the interocular space; for this latter character is in discredit; — 

 specimens with a l<(ige interocular space are to be found, as above meutioned, 

 among the yellow eels as well as amoug the silver ones; Imt this is not at 

 all what the autliors eall and liave cailed A. hitirostris (frog-moutlied eels), for 

 the fåvM'\)-heade(l silver eels with a large iiitei'ocular space have, as far as 1 

 know. nevcr been placed in that category — and as yet no one has success- 

 fully tried to distiuguish between the silver eels with a small and those with 

 a large interocular space; to do so it is necessary to have other characters. 

 — Nor does there seem to be any ditterence in the life of these forms of eels, 

 for we meet with the yellow specimens with a large interocular space both 

 in fresh and in salt water, and it is just the same with the corresponding 

 silver eels with a large interocular space; of course, ouly the silver ones take 

 part in the breeding-migration. But it is a great mistake to believe, as many 



*) Conseiiueiitly M ytais ln'foic Bu/In, tlie engineer; see note |i. 11. 



