126 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 



The young leptocephali are probably carried by the 

 Atlantic drift towards the northern shores of Europe, 

 and when they arrive on the Continental shelf, they 

 complete their transformation and ascend fresh water 

 as elvers. 



The eel is able to travel long distances over land, 

 in order to get from ponds and reservoirs to water that 

 communicates with the sea. This travelling is done by 

 the fish wriggling through the damp grass during the 

 night. I have myself on one occasion caught an eel, 

 weighing over two pounds, which I found on a damp 

 November morning some four hundred yards from the 

 nearest water, and on one or two occasions I have met 

 people who have had a similar experience. The move- 

 ments of the eel through the damp grass are extra- 

 ordinarily rapid, so that it is not necessary for the fish 

 to be long out of water to cover considerable distances. 



In summing up the migrations of the eel, we see that 

 the fish may travel overland from an inland pond to 

 the nearest water that communicates with the sea — 

 then descending the river the eel may journey hundreds 

 or even thousands of miles out into the centre of the 

 Atlantic. Here she spawns, and the leptocephali hatched 

 from the eggs are carried by the Atlantic drift towards 

 the shores of Northern Europe. The transformation 

 occurs during the latter part of this journey, and is 

 completed in the shallower waters of the Continental 

 shelf, where the leptocephalus becomes a glass eel. The 

 glass eel in turn becomes pigmented, and as an elver, 



