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lencth. We now know, thanks mainly to the researches of 
Grassi, that the parent eels go down to the sea and breed in 
the depths of the ocean, in water not less than 3,000 feet in 
depth. There they adopt a marriage dress of silver, and 
their eyes considerably enlarge, so as to make the most of 
the dim light in the ocean depths. Certain small fishes 
found in the same regions had been regarded as a special 
family, known as Leptocephali ; these also were never known 
to breed. It now appears that they are the larve of eels, the 
one known as Leftocephalus brevivostris being the young of our 
common fresh-water species. When they get to the length 
of about an inch they change into the tiny eels known as 
‘elvers, which swarm in thousands up our rivers. Thus the 
habits of the eel reverse those of the salmon.”’ 
Now, sir, can anything in Nature be more marvellous or 
more interesting than this? But can anything more clearly 
show us our utter helplessness to control or affect even so 
common, so well known, and so accessible a form as the 
common eel? Even Professor Herdman, I fancy, would 
hardly propose that we should “ wattle off’’ a portion of the 
ocean bed 500 fathoms deep and feed Leptocephalus brevirostris 
on ‘ offal” to increase our supply of eels. Again, Professor 
Herdman’s own costly researches into the food of fishes, 
though they are very incomplete, and as far as they go only 
comprise investigations made and recorded twenty years 
since, must convince any practical mind of the utter 
