[19] THE EEL QUESTION. 481 



it is easily explained when one thinks of the method of fishing, and the 

 nets employed by the sea fishermen. These nets, which, like those used 

 in the lobster fisheries, are intended to be dragged along the bottom of 

 the sea, have very wide meshes, much too wide to retain an eel, which 

 can slip through a very small hole. And those nets which have narrow 

 meshes never reach to the bottom of the sea ; the eels, however, can 

 only be brought up from the bottom of the sea. The drag-nets which 

 the fishermen employ are, moreover, deficient in this respect, that they 

 do not have an apparatus to dig up the mud which is the favorate habi- 

 tation of the eel, but glide over it gently. The fishermen would very justly 

 fear for their expensive nets if they were to make an attempt at digging 

 up the bottom. To catch a river eel in the open sea, which is an essential 

 condition of solving the most perplexing question of the eel problem, 

 will therefore remain an impossibility as long as we do not possess 

 vessels and apparatus specially adapted to this purpose. 



When one, as I did, has spent weeks in the company of the fishermen 

 and officers of the lagoon, superintendents of fisheries, and private fish- 

 ermen, who year after year and during the fishing season by day and uight 

 think and talk of nothing else but of the eel, on which their prosperity 

 depends, which was fished for by their ancestors centuries ago, so that 

 their power of observation of the mode of life of this fish has naturally 

 been sharpened, it will not be surprising to find that the more intelli- 

 gent fishermen have quietly formed some opinions regarding this mys- 

 terious fish and its procreation, which, laying aside the common fables, 

 are calculated to give some hints to the naturalist as to the way and 

 direction in which he should pursue his investigations. Such opinions 

 I have heard expressed by some of the more intelligent of the fishermen, 

 and the opinion which I had formed concerning some of the unsolved 

 problems of the eel question has thereby been confirmed. These prob- 

 lems, which are intimately connected with each other, are the following: 



(1) How can it be explained that no fully-developed males and females — 

 milters and spawners — of the eel have ever been found? 



(2) When and where do the organs of generation of the eel develop 

 to that degree of maturity which is necessary for the procreation of 

 young eels? 



(3) Where do eels spawn, and where are their eggs impregnated? 



(4) What becomes of the fully-grown eels after the spawning season j 

 why do they never return to the rivers, but disappear altogether? 



Drawing rational conclusions from our present knowledge of the eel 

 question, these questions should be answered as follows: 



assertion made by Professor Ercolani, that the eels which were sent to him from 

 Ancona had been caught in the open sea. I am convinced that they had never seen 

 the open sea ; the fishermen, however, described them as " caught in the sea," which, 

 of course, was true in a certain sense, although, no doubt, they had caught them near 

 the coast. Through the kindness of Mr. von Littrow, harbor-master at Fiume, I 

 received a large number of eels which the lobster-fishermen had caught in the harbor 

 of Fiume, and which in no reepect differed from the common lagoon eels. 

 S. Miss. 59 31 



