— 2l6 — 



in general ^ that is, that the glass-eels travel pelagically on the surface at night also in 

 other waters and at other periods of the year, I have been able to confirm both by my 

 own catches and by those of others which have been placed at my disposal. We thus 

 see that the eel-fry, after passing over into the glass-eel stage, still retain the pelagic mode 

 of life for some time which was so characteristic of the earlier Leptocephalus develop- 

 mental stages. 



From fisherman P. Willumsen of Snekkersten, who has fished in the Sound for many 

 years and has for a long time taken note of the occurrence of the small eel-fry, I have 

 received the following interesting report. "The glass-eels have been seen on the surface 

 of the water in the beginning of March, not earlier, but only out in the Sound not at 

 the land. On "Disken" ^ once in still clear weather a shoal of glass-eels was seen 

 hiding around in and out of the floating Zostera, but it is only in the beginning of May 

 that they have been seen — and then only singly — in at the beach, in the water-pools 

 etc. It is in June and July that the great mass comes here, then the numbers gradually 

 decrease again; some of the eels find indeed their way into fresh water, but some cer- 

 tainly go out into deeper water again." 



Baltic. The transparent elvers have never been found in the sea in the Baltic, 

 neither at the Swedish or Finnish coasts. That the older stages of the young must 

 occur in the Baltic is certain from the fact, amongst others, that these ascend both the 

 Swedish and Finnish rivers at the end of summer (in Sweden according to Trybom they 

 have a length of 23—43 cm., p. 212). 



In addition to all the catches of the eel-fry in the sea mentioned hitherto, I have also 

 obtained trustworthy data partly from our own investigations with the "Thor", partly and 

 especially through specimens sent from Mr. E. W. L. Holt, Dublin, Dr. E. J. Allen, Ply- 

 mouth, Dr. J. HjORT, Bergen, and cand. mag. B. S/EMUNDSSON, Reykjavik. These are as 

 follows : 



Atlantic Ocean 

 West of Ireland (sent by Mr. E. W. L Holt) 



(1) November 4th 1904, Stat. S. R., 169, ^—4.4° p.m. 



Lat. 5i°50' N., Long. ii°26' W., depth 129 fathoms. 

 Mosquito-net on trawl on bottom. 



1 glass-eel (Stage 5 A) length: 70 mm. 



Of the other catches by Johansen may be mentioned, that on April 14th, 1905 on the Dogger Bank in 

 the North Sea (55°33' N., 4°39' E., depth 32 meters) he caught at night a pelagic glass-eel on the surface, 

 and that on April 9th, 1905 he took another pelagic glass-eel in the North Sea 10 miles N. by W, of Horns 

 Reef light-ship (5 5 "44 N., 7° 13' E., depth 27 meters) at the surface and likewise at night. Further he has 

 taken glass-eels at many other places nearer the coasts both inside at outside the Skaw. All these catches are 

 shown on the Chart, Plate XII along with those of older date made by others, of which I could obtain 

 information. 



1 JACOBY (Fischfang in der Lagune von Comacchio etc., 1880, S. 61) has already noted this condition. 

 He thus says regaiding the eel-fry wandering from the Adriatic into the lagoons at Comacchio in the period 

 from February to April: "Sie halten sich während des Tageslichtes stets auf dem Grund; bei 

 einbrechender Dunkelheit, auch bei Tage, wenn der Himmel bewölkt ist, pflegen sie 

 sich gegen die Oberfläche zu erheben." 



2 "Disken" is a sandbank lying in the middle of the narrow part of the Sound. It is called by the 

 fishermen "Gründen", and there is deep water on both .sides, deepest however on the east side, namely 18 — 20 

 fathoms. This deep water is called on the charts "0retvisten" , by the fishermen "Hveensdyb", "Raadyb", 

 „Skraepperne" (from "Skrœpper" i. e. Lan2ittaria). 



