192 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1339 



information wliich has come to liim from 

 fishermen who ply their trade out in the Gulf 

 of Mexico, thinks that near the center of the 

 Gulf these great fish have a breeding ground, 

 and that they are fairly abundant. 



These sharks are most abtmdant around 

 Ceylon, in the East Indies around Java, north 

 among the Philippines and to the coasts of 

 Japan. Recently a new habitat record in this 

 region has been noted. Mr. J. Dewar Cum- 

 ming, in his book "Voyage of the Nyanza 

 ... in the Atlantic and Pacific [Oceans]," 

 London, 1892, says that at Hillsborough 

 Island, the largest of the Cofiin or Bailey 

 group, in the Benin Archipelago, he saw a 

 whale shark, which "... must have measured 

 25 to 30 feet in length, and was at least eight 

 feet across the shoulders. The color was of 

 a bluish-gray, dotted with large white spots." 



Bhineodon is, however, found most fre- 

 quently around the Seychelles Islands in the 

 western Indian Ocean, about midway betwixt 

 the equator and the northern end of Mada- 

 gascar. In 1914-15, an expedition was 

 planned for the Seychelles to study Bhineodon, 

 but had to be postponed on accoimt of the 

 great war. With the coming of peace, plans 

 were again made, but in the face of the enor- 

 mous rise in the cost of transiwrtation, of 

 living expenses and all commodities, another 

 postjwnement has been necessary. In the 

 meantime a correspondent at Mahe, Seychelles 

 Islands, writes that Bhineodon is more plenti- 

 ful there than ever. 



For fuller information (in fact everything 

 known) about this great fish, references may 

 be made to papers by the writer previously 

 published elsewhere.^ 



e. w. gudger 



American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York Citt 



1 "Natural History of the Whale Shark, Bhineo- 

 don typus Smith.," Zoologica, Seientifie Publica- 

 tions New York Zoological Society, 1915, Vol. 1, 

 pp. 349-389, 12 figs. "Bhineodon typus, the 

 Whale Shark: Further Notes on its Habits and 

 Distribution," Science, 1918, N. S., Vol. 48, pp. 

 622-27. 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



THE SPAWNING GROUNDS OF THE EEL 



The Bureau of Fisheries reports that Dr. 

 Johannes Schmidt, a distinguished Danish 

 scientist, has recently completed an explor- 

 ing voyage across the Atlantic in the 

 steamer Dana, of the Danish Commission for 

 Marine Investigation. Dr. Schmidt, who is 

 director of the Carlsberg Laboratory in 

 Copenhagen, for about 15 years has been 

 devoting special attention to the fresh-water 

 eels of Europe and America, and is the lead- 

 ing authority on these interesting fishes, 

 which are relatively much more important in 

 western and southern Europe than in eastern 

 America. Dr. Schmidt has made important 

 contributions to the sea life of the eels, and 

 during the recent cruise from Gibralter to 

 Bermuda and the West Indies collected large 

 numbers of larval eels, with a view to deter- 

 mining the spawning grounds of the Eu- 

 ropean and American eels, which represent 

 distinct but closely related species. Dr. 

 Schmidt says : 



I think I am now able, after so many years' 

 work, to chart out the spawning places of the 

 European eel. The great center seems to be about 

 27° N. and 60° W. [southwest of Bermuda], a most 

 surprising result, in my opinion. The American eel 

 seems to have its spawning places in a zone west 

 and south of the European, but overlapping. The 

 larvse of both species appear to pass their first 

 youth tlogether, but when they have reached a length 

 of about 3 centimeters the one species turns to the 

 right, the other to the left. 



The assistance of the Bureau of Fisheries 

 is invoked by Dr. Schmidt in obtaining fur- 

 ther specimens of larval eels taken from 

 waters off the American coast south of Cape 

 Hatteras in sumer and autumn; most of the 

 collections heretofore made in that region 

 have been in winter when few eels are 

 spawning. 



AGRICULTURAL WORK AT THE UNIVERSITY 

 OF NANKING 



The latest annual report of the college of 

 agriculture and forestry of the University of 

 Nanking, China, as abstracted in the Experi- 



