Eel and Conger's Rp.xnal Organs. 



153 



only \ to A- of a millimetre in diameter, and therefore little more 

 than pin-points. The Congers are somewhat larger, nearly 

 1 millimetre, or equal to pin's-heads in size. A Conger which 

 died in the Berlin Aquarium weighed 22 J lb., the ovaries alone 

 8 lb., and it was calculated the eggs numbered over three 

 millions. The eggs of the Common Eel are given approximately 

 from five to ten millions by different authorities. 



FIG. 18. 



Silver Eel opened, at period well towards spawning condition. It 

 shows the liver, stomach and gut lying along the middle line, and the 

 belly flaps turned aside, covered by large lappets of the ovaries. (From 

 specimen 19 inches long when fresh, now preserved in the Hunterian 

 Museum, preparation No. 2,660 C.)* 



To make out the sexual organs of the eel distinctly we have 

 found it best to examine a lean specimen, say over a foot long 

 such a one as the whitebaiters take from mid-October to mid- 

 November. The absence of fatty tissue renders clearer defini- 

 tion of the parts. In the female the ovaries then appear as 

 long, flat, gelatinous-looking strips, sometimes somewhat scol- 

 loped. They pass back from opposite the liver, on either side 

 of the stomach and gut, to beyond the anus. The male sexual 

 organs lie in a similar position, but have more resemblance to 



* This example of a nearly ripe female was originally described and figured by 

 Tegetmeir in The Field, 12th Dec., 1895. See also Cunningham's remarks " Maturity 

 of Common Eel," Jour. Mar. Biol. Assoc. IV. (1895-97 



