COD, HADDOCKS, WHITING, BREAM, ETC 433 



cephali is the silver eel in its larval condition (Leftocephalus 

 brevirostris it has been named), and, curiously enough, it has 

 only been found in the Straits of Messina. The little 

 creatures which grow into conger eels have been known to 

 naturalists for a good many years. 



There are in the commencement of a conger's life- history 

 three stages before the fish takes the form under which it is so 

 familiar to us. The first is a tsenioid form with long and fine 

 teeth ; then these teeth disappear ; and finally we get the third 

 form, in which the ordinary conger's teeth begin to develop. 

 One of the most extraordinary points about the transforma- 

 tion is that the little creature grows smaller as it changes into a 

 conger proper. Mr. J. T. Cunningham, who is one of the 

 naturalists of the Marine Biological Association, states that a 

 larva five inches in length develops into a three-inch conger, 

 and that the transformation may not take more than a month. 



Like trout, conger vary very much in colour, according to 

 the bottom on which they are caught, and they are caught 

 anywhere and everywhere. Generally speaking, their haunts 

 are among rocks, but when feeding at night they leave their 

 cavernous retreats and travel long distances over sandy and 

 muddy bottoms in search of food. Deep water is usually 

 believed to be essential to the capture of big congers, but at 

 night I have caught large ones, and hooked and lost still larger 

 (a common experience), in a couple of fathoms of water. 



If the number of eggs is any criterion, congers must be 

 extremely prolific. In a female which died in the Southport 

 Aquarium were found over six million, the eel weighing only 

 15^ Ibs. The growth rate of congers is extremely rapid, not 

 only in the sea (pure presumption), but also in aquariums (a 

 well-known fact). In the Southport Aquarium these fish have 

 grown from 7 Ibs. or 8 Ibs. to 25 Ibs. or 30 Ibs. in about sixteen 

 months, and one monster attained the weight of 90 Ibs. in five 



3 K 



