152 Eel, Food and Procreation. 



females by authorities who have studied the question. They are 

 not very fastidious in their diet. Shore crabs, fish eggs, small 

 fish, even their younger brethren or garbage of any sort, all 

 come alike. Instance, one caught 23rd May, 1891, outside the 

 locks, Heybridge Basin, near Maldon, which contained nine perch 

 and a rat. This eel weighed 2 J Ib. 



Most persons having to do with fish and fisheries are still 

 under the impression that nothing is yet known of the pro- 

 creation of the eel. It is assumed there is only belly fat where 

 the roe should be present. It is true that only within com- 

 paratively recent years has a flood of light been cast on the 

 subject. No wonder therefore it has not yet penetrated into 

 every nook and corner of fishing communities. The matter is 

 interesting as pointedly marking the slow progress of scientific 

 inquiry on what might be thought one easy of solution.* 



Taken in a general sense the sexual organs of the Conger and 

 Common Eel are so similar to each other that separate notice 

 may be dispensed with. Usually in biggish eels there only 

 seem long strips of belly fat. Notwithstanding, the less promi- 

 nent right and left ovary or the milt are present. The amount 

 of fatty tissue certainly is apt to deceive, particularly as a 

 matter of fact that the eggs themselves are so small as barely 

 to be perceptible to the naked eye, and in the immature fish 

 best demonstrated under the microscope. The accompanying 

 illustrations, Fig. 17 (A, B, c), may help to an understanding of 

 how the mass of fat cells ( spaces in white) prominently surpass 

 the eggs (circles dotted within) in quantity. Hence comes it to 

 appear to ordinary vision that there are only long pieces of fat 

 in the eel's belly. The eggs themselves in the Common Eel are 



* To those interested it may be enough to refer to data and summaries of the whole 

 problem by English writers, viz. : Brown Goode, " Life Hist, of Eel," Bull, U. S. Fish. 

 Commiss., 1881 ; " Nat. Hist, of Aquatic Animals," in Fishery Industries of U. S., 1881 ; 

 Cunningham in Jour. Mar. Biol. Asso., Vols. I., III., IV., 1891-07 (several articles), and 

 his vol. " Market. Mar. Fish," 1896 ; Mclntosh's "Brit. Mar. Food Fish," 1807; and 

 Williamson, "Reprod. of Eel," in 13th Ann. Rep. S. F. B. for 1894. With a few ex- 

 ceptions in England and America, it is to Continental workers belongs the main credit 

 of investigations thereon. Italian, German and French savants alike come to the fore, 

 among whom Benecke, Calandruccio, Delage, Grassi, Hermes, Jacoby, Mobius, 

 Mondini, Miiller, Pauly, Rathke, Robin, and Syrski may be mentioned among a host of 

 others who have taken part in the elucidation of the puzzling question. 



