g2 Fish Cultural Association. 
opaque, with the delicate seration on abdomen and reticula- 
tion on their sides of the perfect eel. Towards the last of 
April the supply of young diminished, and we almost cleared 
the trough and upper preserve of them. There never were 
more than a few in the lower preserve, but by May roth 
they were more plentiful than ever, and as the lower screen 
in the trough had been removed, they poured into the upper 
preserve in myriads. 
Now, none of these eels came from the bay. They were 
all descending from the pond, where they must have hatched 
or been born. To be sure, they kept their heads up-stream, 
but fish of all kinds in descending a stream invariably do 
that, as every one who has watched them knows, and for the 
reason that in that way they can escape danger, and can 
regulate their rate of descent. Salmon descend rapids and 
shad go down our rivers head up-stream, and so does every 
kind. of. fish. s~when,, left; to .1ts);; natural course,’ [tpais “trie 
they would occasionally climb back up the side of the pre- 
serve, into which they had wormed their way with so much 
persistency, but that was probably due to eel-perversity. It 
was seeing them climb perpendicular flood-gates in that 
manner which had'convinced me, as no doubt it had con- 
vinced others, that eels were ascending, not descending, the 
‘Tivers. inthe spring.,,) If.my:present) .conclusion. is) rieiiiae 
accords with the practice of all migratory fish, and brings 
eels into the ordinary catalogue of breeding in fresh-water 
and growing in salt. It seems to me impossible that I 
could be deceived. There were very few eel-fry in the main 
stream, into which the preserves emptied; there were scarcely 
more in the lower preserve, through which alone they could 
obtain access from below to the upper preserve. In the 
latter they existed in millions, their numbers increasing 1m- 
