252 TACKLE— CURIOUS METHODS— S/Lf/7?C7S— EELS 



habits with those of other insects," ^ " The beetle in the act 

 of parturition " is represented on the frontispiece ! 



The fact that this beetle is evidently a dead one would not, 

 as the Bihliotheca Piscatoria rather wickedly puts it, even if 

 known to the writer, cause him to alter his opinion one jot ! 



It was only in 1896 — strange, indeed, that a problem which 

 so many keen intellects had attacked should remain unelucidated 

 for over two thousand years ! — that the mode of reproduction 

 and development of the Eel was first surmised, and then for the 

 most part ascertained by Professor Grassi and Dr. Galandruccio. 

 But not till 1904 were most of the surmises of the Italian 

 investigators placed beyond question, and the mode of repro- 

 duction, etc., established beyond doubt by Johann Schmidt of 

 Copenhagen. 



The now accepted view (stated shortly) is as follows : 

 freshwater Eels approach maturity when about six years old, 

 and then change their colour from browny-yellow to silver, 

 whence " Silver Eels." In this bridal attire and with eyes 

 enlarged, they find their way from the rivers to the sea, and far 

 out into deep waters of the ocean. The pace at which they 

 travel on their way to the sea cannot be computed exactly, but 

 two marked Eels have been caught whose record was nineteen 

 kilometres in two days. Meek - states that neither the exact 

 locality nor the approximate depth of the spawning is as yet 

 known, but that there can be no doubt that the spawning region 

 lies deep and far out in the Atlantic beyond the Continental 

 shelf. 



The Times, Sept. 25, 1920, announces that Dr. J. Schmidt 

 has just discovered the spawning place of fresh- water Eels 

 to be not far S. of Bermuda, or about 27 deg. N. and 60 deg. W., 

 much farther W. than he anticipated. Of the many marvels 

 of the ichthyic world this is, perhaps, the greatest. It taxes, 

 it transcends, our powers adequately to conceive the hereditary 

 instinct or gauge the enduring strength which impels fish — as yet 



^ It is curious to find that a similar belief was held in Sardinia : according 

 to Jacoby, the water beetle {Dytisciis roeselii) is there believed to be the 

 progenitor of the Eel, and is accordingly called the " Mother of the Eels" 

 (Turrell, op. cit., p. 37). 



2 Migyations of Fishes, London, 1916. 



