TENTH. ANNUAL MEETING. III 
In De La Blanchére’s ‘“‘Nouveau Dictionaire general de 
peche, Paris, 1868,” occurs the following paragraph, without any 
indication of its source: ‘‘Chenu and Desmarest do not hesitate 
to state that the eel spawns upon the mud after a kind of copu- 
lation; that the eggs remain, adhering together, joined by a 
glutinous substance analogous to that which connects the eggs 
of the fresh-water perch, and forms little pellets or rounded 
globules. Each female, as they have succeeded in observing, 
produces annually many of these masses. The little fish soon 
hatch out and remain, for the first few days after their birth, 
together in these masses, but when they have reached a length 
of 4 or 5™™ they shake off the bonds which hold them and soon 
ascend in great bodies the streams and brooklets near which they 
find themselves.” 
According to this, the eggs are deposited in masses of slime, 
inside of which the young hatch out in the course of a few days, 
and a few days later they shake themselves free and swim about 
at liberty. 
~ When and where these investigators have made such observa- 
tions is not to be found out from the “ Dictionaire;” at any rate, 
it is very hard to understand how they have proved that the 
same female eel yearly lays several sets of eggs. 
BENECKE ON THE MOVEMENTS OF YOUNG EELS. 
Benecke gives the following thorough discussion of the move- 
ments of young eels: 
The young eels, hatched out of the eggs at sea, doubtless live 
at the bottom until they grow, through consumption of rich 
food substances there to be found, to a size from 1 to 3 centime- 
ters. When they have attained this size they begin their wan- 
derings in immense schools, proceeding to ascend into the rivers 
and lakes. These wanderings of the young eels have been 
known fora very long time; for instance, in the lagoons of Com- 
acchio, in which they may be found, for the most part, after they 
have gained the length of from 6 to 8 millimeters, and in 
France, later also in England, Denmark, Sweden, and, more 
recently, in Germany they have also been observed. 
