THE SHADS, THE EELS, AND THE LAMPREYS 295 



true that Dr. Gilnther refused them a separate place in his 

 system, but his reason for doing so is evidence of the darkness 

 which prevailed as to the true character of these creatures. 



" We must come to the conclusion," said he, " that the 

 Leptocephalids are the offspring of various kinds of marine 

 fishes, representing not a normal stage of development (larvas), 

 but an arrest of development at a very early period of their 

 life. They continue to grow to a certain size without corre- 

 sponding development of their internal organs, and perish 

 without having attained the characters of the perfect animal."* 



It was reserved for the Italian naturalist Grassi to demon- 

 strate beyond all manner of doubt in 1896 that Lcptocephalus 

 was the larval form of the eel, produced from eggs laid in the 

 sea, probably pelagic, or free-floating. 



In its next stage of growth most dwellers near the sea 

 are well acquainted with the eel. It is in May and June that 

 the remarkable phenomenon of "eel-fare" takes place, when 

 the young eels, known as elvers, " fare " up from the sea 

 in countless myriads. They are slender, semi-transparent 

 creatures, two or three inches long, about the thickness of a 

 small crowquill, and appear in such prodigious numbers that 

 I have seen a Scottish trout-stream slate-coloured from bank 

 to bank with the throng for a distance of twenty or thirty 

 yards. It is a display of the prodigality of Nature, as well as 

 of her heartlessness to the individual fate of her creatures ; for 

 it must be only a very small percentage of elvers which escape 

 the voracity of birds and fish at this tender age. Even man 

 deigns to consider elvers a delicacy. Couch, the ichthyologist, 

 was told by a Cornish fisherman that he had seen at Exeter 

 four carts loaded with elvers for sale. They are fried in a 

 form called elver-cakes, presenting, says Mr. Montagu, " a 

 peculiar appearance from the number of little black eyes that 

 bespangle them." 



Now, albeit the connection between Leptocephali and elvers 

 * Introduction to the Study of Fishes, p. 181. 



