118 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
were found many specimens of 17; inches in length, which I was 
careful to note because Syrski had only found the size of 16} 
inches. In Comacchio, abit aes to Jacoby, a specimen of 18; 
inches had been found. 
JACOBY’S TOUR TO COMACCHIO IN 1877, AND HIS CONCLUSIONS. 
“Tn the’ fallof! 1877writes ‘Jacoby, {1 undertook a journey 
from Trieste, by way of Ravenna, to Comacchio; convinced of 
the difficulty of the questions to be solved by my own previous 
labors, I had not great hopes of finding sexually immature eels, 
either gravid females or mature males. My highest aim was at 
the beginning to determine the following points: (1) Whether 
evidences of preparation for breeding might not be found in the 
eels which were wandering in the fall toward the sea; (2) to what 
extent eels with the organ of Syrski could be found participating 
in this migration; (3) as far as possible to obtain eels from the 
sea at a distance from the coast in order to compare their organs 
of reproduction with those of the eels in the lagoons. 
“In determining the answers to the first two questions I was 
able to make some new and interesting discoveries, but with 
regard to the latter, my most diligent efforts were absolutely 
fruitless. 
“I found that the eels when migrating to the sea in the fall 
took no food. In many hundreds examined by me, caught dur- 
ing their movement, I found stomach and intestines entirely 
empty; that the eels during their migrations eat nothing is also 
known to all fishermen and watermen of Comacchio. At the 
same time, the eels which remained in the lagoons were more or 
less filled with food, not only those which were not sufficiently 
mature to migrate, but also a breed of eels which never goes to 
the sea, but remains throughout its entire life in the lagoons. 
“There may be found in Comacchio, and doubtless everywhere 
where eels live in great numbers in brackish water along the 
coast, a peculiar group of eels which, as far as I could determine, 
consists entirely of sterile females. These female eels with 
ovaries present a very peculiar phenomenon; when they are 
opened one finds instead of the well-known yellowish- white, 
