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d'eau. Cette difference d'aspect s'accompagne de modiHcati(.)ns dans les qualités alibiles 

 du poisson, très recherché sous sa première forme, dans les localités où on le prend, car 

 il ne supporte pas le transport, rejeté sous la seconde comme indigeste et de mauvais 

 goût. La Civelle, en effet, est constituée par des tissus à l'état en grande partie embry- 

 onnaire et surtout renferme encore dans son abdomen une quantité notable de la réserve 

 nutritive vitello-ombilicale, substance d'une assimilation facile, tandis que la Montée propre- 

 ment dite, qui, à ce moment, après avoir épuisé la réserve embryonnaire pour former ses 

 tissus définitifs, n'a pu encore se nourrir suffisamment, est maigre et n'offre aucune des 

 qualités recherchées pour l'alimentation, ce qui explique assez l'abandon de sa pêche." 



Vaillant's description appears to me very instructive and interesting, and it gives a 

 clear picture of how great a phenomenon the ascent of the small elvers on the French 

 coasts must be (cf. Chart, PI. XII). It is likewise of great importance because it distinguishes 

 so sharply the transparent colourless „civelle" from the dark-coloured, non-transparent 

 "montée" in the narrower sense, i. e. between the developmental stages I have earlier in 

 this work denoted as the 5th and 6th Stages. 



With regard to Spain, as for several reasons I imagined that there would be a 

 considerable ascent of the elvers on the Spanish north coast and that a fishery for them 

 had also developed there, and as the literature so far as known to me contained no 

 account of the matter, I wrote to several Danish consuls in northern Spain for further 

 information. The answers received, which came from San Sebastian, Bilbao and San- 

 tander, all strengthened my supposition and show that the fishery for the elvers, which 

 are called "angulas" in northern Spain (the old eels "anguilas") may be of no small 

 importance. 



The Danish vice-consul in San Sebastian y Pasages, Mr. Jorge Mueller informs 

 me in a letter of January 26th, 1906: "the elvers (angulas) come from the sea into the 

 rivers and are taken from the middle of October. The fishery is carried on from the 

 banks at night by means of a handnet and a lantern. Along the tract from San Seba- 

 stian to Bilbao where rivers flow into the sea, these "angulas" are frequently taken in 

 great masses though often also in small quantities. They are boiled immediately on cap- 

 ture and sold as soon as possible as they do not last good. When the skin becomes 

 dark, they are no longer fished."' 



The Danish consul at Bilbao, Mr. C.\rlos Hoppe, wrote to me on January 26th and 

 February 9th 1906 as follows : "an important fishery for elvers ("angulas") certainly 

 takes place in the river Nervion from Portugalete upwards and further up the river not 

 only to Bilbao but even further. The "angulas" come up the river in November and 

 December. Sometimes if the autumnal equinoxes are damp they begin to come up earlier, 

 right from the first lunar period in October. The fishery is generally pursued till the 

 middle of March. The elvers move constantly against the stream and can even pass 

 over dams." 



Through the Danish vice-consul at Santander, Mr. Jorge Mowinckel, I have received 

 from the director of the marine biological station in Santander, Mr. Jose R[oja, the following 

 answers to my questions: "(1) the name used for the young, still transparent elvers is 



I The consuls of both San Sebastian and Bilbao sent me samples of the Spanish "angulas" in January 1906. 

 They were elvers in the 5th Stage very little pigmented. 



