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3ier. The sum of Mr. Yarrell's observations is, that 

 from November to the middle of March he observed 

 no increase in what he decides to be the ovaria 

 of eels; and that after the 15th of April he found 

 the roes shed ; but this certainly can never be ad- 

 mitted as conclusive evidence that eels are ovipa- 

 rous, more especially if we attend to the fact of 

 young eels appearing in considerable numbers at the 

 very time that he concludes the old ones have 

 spawned. In our apprehension, Mr. Yarrell has just 

 left the question respecting eels being oviparous or 

 viviparous, as he found it; and, even granting that 

 they are oviparous, his observations suggest another 

 question which is no less deserving the attention of 

 the naturalist, but which both he and Mr. Jesse seem 

 most strangely to have overlooked. It is this : if eels, 

 according to Mr. Tarrell's observations, spawn about 

 the middle of April, and since it is a fact that the 

 young fry of eels appear about that time, do the 

 ova become quickened immediately on exclusion, or 

 do they not produce young eels till the expiration 

 of a year? A person apt to draw hasty conclusions 

 would be very likely to infer that the young eels 

 are produced alive, from the fact of their appearing 

 at the very time that the old ones are supposed to 

 have spawned, without any intervening time being 

 allowed for the quickening of the ova after exclusion. 

 Mr. Tarrell's observations on the presumed " spawn- 

 ing" of eels, without his saying a word about the 

 time required to quicken the ova, rather tend to 



