846 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 728 



proached. Fishes of the high seas intercept 

 many; still more become the food of the large 

 fishes of the banks and coasts, and of such is 

 especially the cod. That voracious fish rises 

 to them and inflicts great slaughter. 



The later changes of the larva into a minia- 

 ture eel are especially remarkable. Instead of 

 growing larger, the little fish grows smaller 

 and smaller, so that an individual that had 

 been over three inches long may shrink to a 

 length of not more than two inches, and the 

 ribbon-like form may dwindle into a thread- 

 like body. Increase is concentrated into 

 growth sideways and with this the diaphanous 

 character is lost. Meanwhile, " pigment is de- 

 veloped, first on the end of the tail, later on the 

 neck, and lastly over the greater part of th& 

 dorsal and lateral aspects." 



The gradual changes thus indicated have 

 been segregated by Schmidt into six groups 

 or stages, based on specimens obtained by him. 



During all the gradual metamorphosis so 

 illustrated, and which takes a fijU year for 

 completing according to Schmidt, " the larvae 

 do not take any nourishment." This absti- 

 nence from food has been determined by Grassi 

 and Calandruccio and A. C Johnsen, as well 

 as Schmidt. Johnsen " investigated over 

 thirty specimens from the North Sea and the 

 Danish waters and found the alimentary canal 

 empty in all of them." 



The young eels or elvers that in spring com- 

 mence their ascent of the streams, which be- 

 come their homes, must be the offspring of old 

 eels which left the streams not during the last 

 autumn, but the one preceding that; conse- 

 quently, about a year and a half must inter- 

 vene between the time a parent eel begins a 

 journey to fulfill her procreative duties and 

 that when the offspring is ready to take up its 

 life under similar conditions. This is a his- 

 tory very different from any ordinary fish's, 

 and so far as known unique outside of its 

 genus. 



The growth of the eel in fresh water has 

 this year, 1908, been elucidated by Mr. Gemzoe 

 from examination of the scales." 



' Gemzoe ( K. J. ) , " Age and Rate of Growth of 

 the Eel," Rep. Dan. Biol. St., XIV., p. 10-39, 

 tab. 14, 1908. 



The young eel lives and grows for some time 

 without scales. Indeed, " it has lived in 

 [Danish] waters two years, reckoned from 

 the time it arrives as montee (glass-eel, elver) 

 in its early migration " ; it is then about 7 

 inches (18 cm.) long. The scales grow only 

 during the warm months (June to September) 

 and the intervals of arrest of growth differ- 

 entiate the growth of the respective years. 

 The early years are passed with a yellowish 

 belly. " The females become silver later, 

 scarcely before they are six and a half years 

 old, the majority not before they are seven 

 and a half years, and many indeed only be- 

 come silver when they have been eight and 

 a half years " in fresh water. If to these 

 figures we now add a year and a half for the 

 time the eggs are being matured and the 

 leptocephalus stage developed, it appears that 

 an eel must be from eight to ten years old 

 before it assumes the livery of maturity and 

 descends into the ocean to reproduce its kind. 

 Theo. Gill 



Smithsonian Institution 



TBE ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHTSICAL 

 SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



The ninth meeting was held at the Hotel Vic- 

 tory, Put-in-Bay, Ohio, August 25-28, 1908. In 

 addition to the reading of papers, the society 

 appointed two committees: one on luminous 

 meteors, consisting of Messrs. Abbe, Elkin and 

 Peck; the other on comets, consisting of Messrs. 

 Comstock, Pickering, Barnard and Perrine. 

 Officers were elected as follows: 



President — E. C. Pickering. 



First Vice-president — 6. C. Comstock. 



Second Vice-president — W. W. Campbell. 



Secretary— W. J. Hussey. 



Treasurer — C. L. Doolittle. 



Councilors for 1908-10 — W. J. Humphreys and 

 Frank Schlesinger. 



We give below a list of papers presented at the 

 society's sessions, together with brief abstracts: 

 Formulas used for the Reduction of Satellite 



Observations: Asaph Hall. 

 Doolittle's Measures of the Hough Douhle Stars: 



G. W. Hough. (Published in Popular Astron- 

 omy.) 



The Standard Clock at the V. S. Naval Observa^ 

 tory: W. S. Eichelbeegeb. 



