204 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



the shallowness of the water, the fish being adapted to spawn 

 under a pressure of twenty or thirty fathoms. In the same way 

 the soles in the aquarium for some years did not spawn, but 

 expelled their eggs in the dead condition. 



There seems no probability of obtaining ripe female conger. 

 In the sea they cannot be caught on hooks because they do not 

 seek food, and they do not come in the way of the trawl because 

 they remain among rocks. The only methods by which they 

 might be obtained are that of keeping them in a cage at the 

 bottom of the sea, and keeping them in an aquarium tank in 

 which the pressure was artificially increased ; both methods 

 involving considerable expense and trouble. 



The Lcptocephalus Morrisii or Morris, which is the larva of 

 the conger, has been described by the older naturalists, but the 

 descriptions and figures are not perfectly satisfactory according 



FIG. 99. Leptocephalus Morrisii, the larva of the Conger ; after Couch. 



to modern requirements. Fig. 99 is an outline copy of the 

 figure given in Couch's work. 



The length of the first specimen described was 4 inches, of 

 others 5^ and 6 inches. Grassi and Calandruccio state that 

 larvae 5 inches long, are reduced, after the transformation, to 

 congers of 3 inches. The transformation may not take more 

 than a month ; it was observed in 1 50 individuals, and the 

 creatures were kept alive without difficulty in aquaria or even 

 in tubs. The Leptocephali, according to Couch, the Cornish 

 naturalist, are not unfrequently obtained entangled among sea- 

 weed. I never had the good fortune to find any either at 

 Plymouth or elsewhere. But a perfect specimen was obtained at 

 the Plymouth Laboratory in 1894. It was found by a boy on 

 the shore of the Sound. Two were taken in the Irish Survey. 

 in a tow net attached to the trawl beam. 



I have found that conger less than 15 inches long are usually 

 not black or dark like the adults, but pale and pinkish in colour 

 on account of the small amount of pigment in the skin. The 



