432 



MODERN SEA FISHING 



CONGER (Conger vulgaris\ for we may now leave the great 

 Gadida family, were insensibly led up to by the consideration 

 of ling. From time immemorial congers have been both the 

 delight and despair of naturalists, particularly in the matter of 

 their breeding habits. The ancients had most curious views 

 on this subject. In Aristotle's ' History of Animals ' it is 

 declared that eels have no sexes, nor eggs, and that they arise 

 yj/i ErrEjoa. Oppian thought that eels embraced, and that the 

 slime from their bodies fell to the bottom and vitalised in the 

 mud ; but those, by the way, were freshwater eels. Pliny 

 declared that these fish rubbed against rocks and a new breed 

 arose from the detritus. One of our most learned professors 

 of biology wrote a paper not long since gravely stating that in 

 all probability congers spawned once and then died, acting 

 in fact like butterflies. It seemed he had been watching over 

 some congers kept in an aquarium, and the females, so far as I 

 could understand his experience, all died from being eggbound. 

 It is a curious fact that before this happened the bones of the 

 head became soft as cheese. I must say I do not see how any 

 absolutely trustworthy data can be obtained as to the breeding 

 habits of fish from observations made in an aquarium, where 

 the fish do not live under natural conditions. Two other 

 points were noticed with regard to these congers kept in 

 captivity when gravid they shed teeth ; and there appeared no 

 fixed season for this interesting condition, one or more females 

 being found gravid during every month of the year except 

 November. 



There are certain small creatures living in the sea called 

 by naturalists Leptocephali, the variety found in British waters 

 being Leptocephali Morrisii. M. Yves Delage observed at 

 Roscoff that one of these little creatures grew into a conger eel ; 

 and I may say here that one of the most recent discoveries 

 connected with freshwater eels is that another of the Lepto- 



