MOVEMENTS OF YOUNG EELS. 051 



BENECKE ON THE MOVEMENTS OF YOUNG EELS. Benocke gives the following thorough 

 discussion of the movements of young Eels: 



The young Eels, hatched out of the eggs at sea, doubtless live at the bottom until they grow, 

 through consumption of rieli fowl substances there to be found, to a size from one to three cen- 

 timeters. When they have attained this size they begin their wanderings in immense schools, 

 proceeding to ascend into the rivers and lakes. These wanderings of the young Eels have been 

 known for a very long time; for instance, in the lagoons of Comacchio, in which they may be found, 

 for the. most part, after they have gained the length of from six to eight millimeters, and in France, 

 later also in England, Denmark, Sweden, and, more recently, in Germany they have also been 

 observed. 



According to the French reports young Eels are hatched out early in the winter, and in Feb- 

 ruary, having attained the length of four or five centimeters, they appear in the brackish water 

 at the mouth of the Loire in immense numbers, soon to begin their wanderings up the stream. 

 They swim in crowded schools at the surface of the river right up to the banks, and little detach- 

 ments of the army deploy at the mouth of each tributary and pursue their wanderings along its 

 course. These swarms of young Eels are called in France "Montee," in Italy, "Montata." The 

 number of the young fish is, as might be expected from the number of the eggs in the ovary of the 

 Eel, wonderfully large. Kedi has recounted that, from the end of January to the end of April the 

 young fish continue wandering up the Arno, and that in 1867 over three million pounds of them 

 were taken in five hours. Into the lagoons of the Comacchio the Eels pour from February to 

 April. In March and April they have been noticed in many French rivers, in which the migra- 

 tion continues for from eight to fourteen days. The first account of these wanderings in Germany 

 was that given by von Ehlers. In 1863 he wrote to von Siebold: "This took place about ten 

 years ago, in the village of Drenuhausen, in the province of Wesen, in the Kingdom of Hanover. 

 As we were walking, towards the end of June or the beginning of July, on a dike, which at that 

 plae projects out into the Elbe, we noticed that along the entire shore there might be seen a 

 moving band of a dark color. Since everything which takes place in the Elbe is of interest to the 

 inhabitants of that region, this phenomenon immediately attracted attention, and it soon became 

 apparent that this dark baud was composed of an innumerable body of young Eels, which were 

 pressing against each other, as, at the surface of the stream, they were forcing their way upwards 

 towards its source, while they kept themselves so close to the shore that they followed all its 

 bendings and curves. The width of this band of fish at the place where it was observed (where 

 the Elbe has a considerable depth) was perhaps a foot, but how deep it was could not be observed, 

 so thickly crowded together were the young Eels. As they swam a great number could be taken 

 in a bucket, and it was very annoying to the people who lived along the Elbe that, so long as the 

 procession of fish lasted, no water could be taken out of the river which was not full of the little 

 fish. The length of the young Eels was, on an average, from three to four inches; the thickness 

 of the body was about equal to that of a goose-quill. By themselves might here and there be seen 

 swimming Eels of greater size, but none of them were probably more than eight inches in length. 

 All of them, even the smallest, were dark colored. This wonderful procession of fishes continued 

 unbroken and of the same density throughout the whole of the day on which it was first observed, 

 and continued .also upon the following day. On the morning of the third day, however, not one 

 of the young Eels was to be seen." 



Similar observations have been made at Wittenberge, on the Elbe. KuflVr observed great 

 quantities of young Eels, of about three centimeters in length, in the brackish water of the Eider 

 at Fried richsstadt; so also did von Stemann. 



