— 205 — 



alsu reports from Comacchio (south from Venice) a place where a very extensive cel- 

 lishery has been carried on for hundreds of years. The fishery is carried on in the 

 large lagoons at Comacchio in quite a rational manner. Care is taken that the elvers 

 can easily migrate in and almost all the silver eels migrating out in the autumn and 

 winter are caught. In this way it is known exactly when the elvers arrive and this takes 

 place in the period from February to the end of April, the sluices to the lagoons being 

 opened on February 2nd and closed towards the end of April (Jacoby) '. 



According to Grassi and Calandruccio the ascent takes place in Italy from the end 

 of November to the end of March. 



Spain. I have not been able to find any information from Spain in the literature, 

 but the Danish consul in Cadiz in South West Spain, Mr. O. Chr. Kellgren, in answer 

 to my questions, writes me that the ascent of the elvers takes place at Cadiz from the 

 beginning of December and onwards. The people here do not fish them and pay them 

 on the whole little attention. On the other hand the elvers are fished at other places in 

 Spain, on the Bay of Biscay (see p. 199—200). 



France. In addition to the reports of Vaillant already mentioned, several others 

 are to hand, mostly older, which in all essentials agree with Vaillant's. I may mention 

 some of them. S. Jourdain ^ thus writes: "the tiny eel-fry wander in spring into the 

 mouths of various rivers, e. g. the Orne, where they are seen mounting the water-courses 

 in band-like shoals counting several millions of specimens." According to Ch. Robin 3, the 

 ascent takes place in Les Landes, and undoubtedly also elsewhere in southern France, 

 even so early as the latter half of December instead of March as in the Channel. 

 Crespon4, who has investigated the conditions in the Mediterranean, states that the tiny 

 eel-fry, called "bouyeiroûns", collect in the mouth of the Rhone in compact masses, 

 which move up and down in the water or arrange themselves in a long line moving off 

 along the river banks. Such a migration may continue without break for more than 

 14 days. According to C. Vogt s the eel-fry migrate at night into the fresh water on the 

 French coasts in March and April. These small fish .scarcely 2 inches in length literally 

 form compact masses, which can be taken with sieves and similar apparatus and eaten, 

 as a rule with eggs like pan-cakes etc. 



Great Britain. In addition to those already mentioned many reports are to hand 

 from various places in Great Britain. Thus Yarrell (Brit. Fishes, vol. II, 1836, p. 286) 

 says: "the passage of countless hundreds of young eels has been seen and described as 

 occurring in the Thames, the Severn, the Parrett, the Dee and the Ban." He specially 

 mentions the migration in the Thames in the year 1832, where the shoals began to pass 

 Kingston on April 30th and where the phenomenon lasted till May 4th. The following is 

 said (p. 291) about it : "some notion may be formed of the quantity of young Eels, each about 



1 L. Jacoby, Der Fischfang in der Lagune von Comacchio, nebst einer Dai'stellung der Aalfrage. Berlin, 



1880, p. 60 — 62. 



2 S. Jourdain, Sur l'Anguille (Comptes Rendus, t. CIX, p. 201, 1889). 



3 Ch. Robin, Les Anguilles mâles comparées aux femelles (Journal de l'Anatomie et de la Physiologie. 



1881, p. 4.4.6). 



4 Crespon, Faune méridionale or Description de tous les animaux vertébrés etc. dans la plus grande 

 partie du midi de la France. Nimes, 1844, II, p. 307. 



5 C. VQ.GT, Künstliche Fischzucht, 1859, p. 52. 



