652 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



" Every year," writes the latter, " from April to the end of June, there appear great masses of 

 young Eels, which are present in large schools towards the Upper Eider, seeking in every way to 

 pass each other. In April the first Eels show themselves generally singly; cold weather has 

 evidently kept them back up to this time; since this year, until to-day, no ascent whatever has 

 taken place, and now the approach of the great schools is beginning. Where the current is feeble 

 the procession is broad; but where the Eels encounter a strong current near a mill it becomes 

 small, and presses close to the shore, in order to overcome the currents. The little animals swim 

 eagerly and rapidly along near the banks until they find a place over which they decide to climb. 

 Here they lie in great heaps, and appear to await the rising of the tide, which makes their ascent 

 easier. The tide having risen, the whole mass begins to separate without delay ; Eel after Eel 

 climbs up on the steep wall of rock, determined to reach the little pools, at the height of fifteen 

 or twenty inches, into which some of the water from the Upper Eider has found its way. Into 

 these holes the little animals creep, and have yet to travel a distance of forty or fifty feet under 

 the roadway before they can reach the Upper Eider. Another detachment betakes itself to the 

 sluiceways, and clings to the cracks in the wood; also around the mills their ascent may be 

 observed, especially about sunrise." 1 



Davy sends a similar account from Ireland. He was a witness of the ascent of young Eels, or 

 " Elvas," at Ballyshannon, at the end of July, 1823 ; he speaks of the mouth of the river under the 

 fall being "blackened by millions of little Eels about as long as a finger, which were constantly 

 urging their way up the moist rock beside the fall." "Thousands," he adds, "died; but their 

 bodies, remaining, served as a ladder by which the rest could make their way; and I saw some 

 ascending even perpendicular stones, making their way through wet moss or adhering to some 

 Eels that had died iu the attempt." 2 



Such is the energy of these little animals that they continued to find their way in immense 

 numbers to Loch Erne. 



In the little Eels which ascend the rivers there are no traces of sexual organs, but in the fresh 

 water they develop only into females. One of the most recent observations made by Dr. Pauly, 

 in Munich, would appear to contradict this idea, since he discovered male Eels among the fish 

 which were brought with a lot of young Eels to Hiiningen, were kept there for two years in ponds, 

 and were finally released in the fish pond of Court-fisherman Kufler. We should bear in mindj 

 however, that these young Eels were captured at the mouths of fresh rivers in brackish water ; 

 and that among the numerous small Eels which swim in the brackish water there must be many 

 larger specimens, in which the male organs have already begun to develop. Such are doubtless 

 those which were sent in the male condition to Hiiningen and Munich, and were there recognized 

 as males. This presumption can be set aside only if male Eels shall hereafter be found among the 

 fish which are caught in the upper part of rivers in the condition of young fry. 



Concerning another important fact which is connected with the movements of the young fry of 

 the Eel, I became acquainted last year (in the course of an exploration of the waters of the district of 



1 Professor Benecke had in his possession some of the young Eels, which escaped from all the vessels in which 

 they were confined, and even climbed to the ceiling of his room. 



- l.i i i ML- IN CONNECTICUT. Fresh-water Eels may be caught in large numbers, in weirs along the lake 

 streams, when descending at the fall equinox to deposit their spawn in some lower region, and in the following 

 August their offspring, from three to six inches long, return in immense numbers. The basin of the Still River 

 Falls, near Colebrook line, is for several days alive with them. They may be seen laboriously crawling up every 

 rock which is moistened by the spray of the fall, and endeavoring to reach their ancestral lake or dam. At the foot 

 of the Niagara Falls this phenomenon may be witnessed on a largo scale at the same season of the year or later, and 

 probably in other places where the fall is too high and the current too swift for the young Eels to stem it without 

 contact with the rocks. BOYD : Annals of Winchester, Connecticut, p. 26. 



