TSG2 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, 
According to the French reports young eels are hatched out 
early in the winter, and in February, having attained the length 
of 4 or 5 centimeters, they appear in the brackish water at the 
mouth of the Loire in immense numbers, soon to begin their 
wanderings up the stream. They swim in crowded schools at 
the surface of the river right up to the banks, and little detach- 
ments of the army deploy at the mouth of each tributary and 
pursue their wanderings along its course. These swarms of 
young eels are called in France “ Montée,” in Italy, ‘“‘ Montata.”’ 
The number of the young fish is, as might be expected from the 
number of the eggs in the ovary of the eel, wonderfully large. 
Redi has recounted that from the end of January to the end of 
April the young fish continue wandering up the Arno, and that 
in 1867 over 3,000,000 pounds of them were taken in five hours. 
Into the lagoons of the Comacchio the eels pour from February 
to April. In March and April they have been noticed in many 
French rivers, in which the migration continues for from eight to 
fourteen days. The first ‘account of these wanderings in Ger- 
many was that given by Von Ehlers. In 1863 he wrote to Von 
Siebold: ‘This took place about ten years ago, in the village of 
Dreenhausen, in the Province of Wesen, in the Kingdom of 
Hanover. As we were walking, towards the end of June or the 
beginning of July, on a dike, which at that place projects out 
into the Elbe, we noticed that along the entire shore there might 
be seen a moving band of a dark color. Since everything which 
takes place in the Elbe is of interest to the inhabitants of that 
region, this phenomenon immediately attracted attention, and it 
soon became apparent that this dark band was composed of an 
innumerable body of young eels, which were pressing against 
each other, as, at the surface of the stream, they were forcing 
their way upwards towards its source, while they kept them- 
selves so close to the shore that they tollowed all its bendings 
and curves. The width of this band of fish at the place where it 
was observed (where the Elbe has a considerable depth) was 
perhaps a foot, but how deep it was could not be observed, so 
thickly crowded together were the young eels. As they swam 
a great number could be taken in a bucket, and it was very 
annoying to the people who lived along the Elbe that so long as 
