154 Young of Eels ; Leptocephali. 



a knotted string, or are lobed, and they are firmer in consistence 

 and more shiny surfaced than are the ovaries. In the ripe or 

 well-nigh mature female eel the ovarian fat is in a great 

 measure absorbed, and the enormous ovaries then stand out as 

 little more than a dense mass of eggs, forming great sinuous 

 or frilled bands, almost filling the abdomen, the alimentary 

 canal lying between them. Our Fig. 18 represents such a 

 condition. 



So far satisfactory that eels and congers do produce eggs 

 and milt, and that their sexual apparatus to some extent con- 

 forms to that of other fishes. When we come to shedding of 

 their spawn, whether that takes place in the sea, or whether, 

 as others maintain, in the shallow, brackish waters, or in the 

 sand, like the sand-eel, then the subject becomes obscure. Fur- 

 ther, the development of eel and conger from egg to larval and 

 post-larval stage still lacks desirable completeness. 



Again, the translucent elvers and darker coloured young eels 

 that migrate up the rivers in spring are perfect eels in their 

 way ; but it has been suspected their earliest stage differed. 

 Leptocephdlus was the naturalist's name given to a small thin 

 diaphanous fish (supposed adult) discovered in 1763, near 

 Holyhead, afterwards elsewhere in Britain, the Mediterranean, 

 and even Mid- Atlantic. Bearing considerable resemblance to 

 the eel tribe, these Leptocephali, after much speculation and 

 research, have been traced to be preliminary developmental 

 conditions of the eel, conger and allies. The remarkable thing 

 is that the thin, deep-bodied Leptocephalus decreases in dimen- 

 sions ere acquiring eel and conger characters (See Fig. 19, 

 A, B, c). This subject Ave need not pursue, but refer to the 

 literature in preceding footnote. 



Finally, it seems to us that our District, with its many eel 

 haunts, affords ample facility to ascertain still dubious points. 

 Exempli gratia : What follows eels or congers spawning their 

 destruction or otherwise ? Opposite views have been expressed 

 by experts. Yarrell states two eels from Sheerness, 18th May, 



