478 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [1G] 



more designate by this name the # above-described variety of eel with 

 broad mouth, small eyes, bright green color, and tender flesh. The use 

 of this word ''pasciuto" for two totally different categories of eels, the 

 one comprising both those which have not yet reached maturity, the 

 normally developed females which migrate later, and the eels with the 

 lobe-organ, and the other comprising the barren females, which never 

 migrate, and which, as I remarked above, are found of all sizes, is apt 

 to create some confusion, which will make scientific investigatious in 

 the beginning somewhat difficult. When Spallanzani, a hundred years 

 ago, visited Comacchio he encountered the very same difficulty, although 

 he had no knowledge of sexual differences in eels.* 



The second part of the problem was of special interest, namely, to prove 

 the occurrence in Comacchio of eels with lobe-organs and to show what 

 sort of life they led. I can state that among the 1,200 eels (more or 

 less) which I dissected at Comacchio (including in this number the larger 

 eels, which are invariably females), I found that on an average 5 per 

 ceut. had the Syrski organ ; but that of all the eels which measured less 

 than 45 centimeters on an average 20 per cent, had it; the result was 

 therefore the same as in Trieste, whose fish market is, for the greater 

 part, supplied with eels from Chioggia, a comparatively small portion 

 only coming from Comacchio. I found at Comacchio the largest eel 

 with a lobe-organ which has so far been discovered, measuring 48 centi- 

 meters, and also the smallest, measuring 24 centimeters. All these were 



* Several of the older naturalists have already stated that there are some eels which 

 never migrate to the sea; e.g., Risso, in his "Histoire naturelle de 1'Europe m6ri- 

 dionale," vol. iii, p. 198; also S. Nilsson, in his "Skandinavisk Fauna," vol. iv, p. 

 663. Nilsson calls the variety of the eel which does not migrate "grass-eel," and 

 makes special mention of its yellowish-green color and its tender and delicate flesh. 

 Both these naturalists, however, strange to say, describe this very variety as having 

 a more pointed snout than the others ; and Risso, who gives it as a special variety — 

 the Anguilla acutirostris (the eel with the pointed snout), describes it as dark-colored 

 on the back and of a light silver color on the belly. This statement differs in every 

 particular from the appearance of the non-migratory eel of Comacchio. I must state 

 that all the "pasciuti" which I found to be barren females, and which from this rea- 

 son do not migrate, are distinguished by a broad snout. It will be interesting in this 

 connection to compare the following measurements taken in Comacchio; a means 

 the whole length of the body of the eel, and b the breadth of the point of the snout 

 between the nasal tubes, in millimeters : 



