i-^] THE FISHERIES OF SWEDEN. 333 



a third variety, the so called sluMlen, which has a dark color a broad 

 nose, and tolerably lar^e protuberances on the sides of the head » 

 ing a furrow which runs along the middle of the head, and gives the hsh 

 an ugly appearance, for which reason it is also called ^nym^i-tlie -uoW 

 eel. ' This variety is found among the other eels, but uot in ver^ lar4 

 numbers, and does not give rise to any special fisheries.^^ The '' era'ss 

 eel and the " ugly eel " are exceedingly voracious, and remnants of tish 

 are often found m their stomachs. The - horn eel," on the other hand has 

 generally an empty stomach, or only some reddish-yellow slime in i't so 

 that ,t seems that, like the salmon and some other fish, it eats nothing or 

 but httle during its migration. Near Oro, on the Kalmar coast, where 

 many eels are salted, and where they therefore have to be cut open it 

 was noticed as peculiar that nothing was ever found in the stomach of 

 a blank eel;" while the reverse was the case with the "grass eel » The 

 few observations which I have made regarding this subject confirm this. 

 These tacts still further corroborate the opinion that eels do not come near 

 the shore to seek food, but that herein they resemble the salmon, which 

 on their journey toward the rivers also go along the shore. There is no 

 doubt that a large number of the migratory eels come from fresh water 

 but a large number of eels are found in the Baltic near the shore and 

 m the inlets all the time, and are caug ht there all the year round. 



/=_ As regards the relation between these different varieties of eels, opinions are still 



tZt. r '"'."";' •'^'''' '''^'^^"*^ '''' *^^- - -l--t« -r^«t-s. lion, 



heScandmay:an naturahsts Ekstrom distinguishes two varieties, the large-nosed 

 (Mura^naplatyrnna) and the small-nosed eel (Mur^^na oxyrhina) Krdyer distin 

 gm.hes three k.nds: An.uilla migratoria, A.aeutirostris, and ^. latirc^ I^^Z 

 son s iauna tW are given as varieties of the common eel. Gunther in his larle 

 onTv ; ^f ^^^f"r^. ^^«^- ^" *^« British Museum," says that of all these vareUe 

 only the Anomlla laUrostris can be considered as a separate kind, principally beilu" 

 the proportion between the length of the fins and the length of he head s verv dif 

 ferent from that found in the other eels. With the commfn eel the length of Ihe held 

 18 equal to or less than the distance between the roots of the dorsal and of the anal i's 

 wh>]e m the Anouilla laUrostris the length of the head is greater than the above-men 

 air TT"- ' •^^'^ '"^"''^^^ " ''^^' ^''^ «P^---« «' Skane eels. No. 5 whlh' 

 nose ^'no '^TT""" '' ^'^^ '^"^' """'^" t^o A.^uiUa laUrostris, had a very pintei 

 nose. No. 3 had a comparatively broad nose. The lower iaw was found tnr 



IterVh """• ' ''""T' '' r' '''''' '- -'' ^' ^'' ^^ *^« sSleTLlrwtich iC 

 fX 1' J ^T^ ""^" '^"S^* ^'^' Limhamn had an nnusually broad nose espec 

 lally the largest one. The color of the belly was a lively yellowish -rru' The 

 stomach and intestinal canal of the larger eel which I examined were f of rin 

 nants of small crustaceans. Young eels are often caught in considerable nu 1."; 

 the hsh-pots used for catching various crustacean. Thequantity of thesZ "eVr 

 a certam relation to the size of the fish, and on close examination can bTdTs erncd 



and .^ ere probably far from being fully matured. The roe in the fish which I exam 



llsured miu! T n . "^' '''' containing roe, each grain of which 



measuied , millimeter, therefore resembling those which I had observed. In No 1 



:^m:::^ersf "^'''^ breadth of the ovarium was 18 millimeters, and in Z^^; li 



