Dutean.—Is Access to the Sea a necessity to Eels. 291 
Art. XXX.—Is Access to the Sea a Necessity to Eels? 
By James Duiean. 
(Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 4th October, 1875.} 
I nave had my attention drawn to a paper by Mr. W. T. L. Travers, F.L.S., 
published in Vol. IIT. of the “ Trans. N. Z. Inst.,” in which that gentleman 
argues that, inasmuch as there is an absence of Hels in the upper waters of 
the Waiau-ua and its tributaries, it is necessary that Eels should be able 
to go down to the sea during the spawning season. Dr. Hector, in his 
notes on the edible fishes of New Zealand, also alludes to this belief, and 
gives an extract from a letter written by Mr. Maling, a Surveyor, to Mr. 
Travers on the subject, in which the writer says, ‘from my own observa- 
vations, I think it is absolutely requisite for that fish (the Eel) to have 
access to the sea. There are three notable instances of it here (Taupo). 
Ist, In the Waikato River, Eels are found as far as the Maungatautari 
Falls, and in all the streams that flow into it below them. 2nd, In the 
Kaituna River, which drains Rotorua and Rotoiti Lakes, Eels are caught 
as far as the Falls below the Taheke, and no further. 8rd, They are 
caught in Lake Tarawera, but not in Rotokakahi, the waters of which run 
into Tarawera Lake, but have a perpendicular fall in one place of 100 feet.”’ 
That there is something more than the physical difficulties alluded to at 
work to account for the absence of Hels from the places named by both Mr. 
Travers and Mr. Maling, I am firmly persuaded, as I have caught Eels in 
places more completely isolated from access to the sea than any of those 
named by the above gentlemen ; and, as one instance is quite sufficient to 
establish the fact that Eels not only can, but do live, in waters having no 
access to the sea, I shall merely state that they exist in large numbers in 
Virginia Lake, a sheet of deep water close to the town of Wanganui. This 
lake has neither inlet nor outlet from the surface, and is some three or four 
miles distant from the sea, and at an elevation of about 250 feet the above sea 
level. The natives look upon it as one of their best fishing grounds, and 
catch large quantities there every season. The fact of the lake, which is in 
places very deep, having no visible source or overflow, and keeping its level 
and purity throughout the droughts of summer, at once struck me as indi- 
cative of subterranean sources of supply and drainage. On examining the 
strata in the vicinity, I found the lake had its bed in just such a position as 
to bear out the hypothesis above mentioned. As a section of it would shew 
first a greater or lesser extent of blue clay, forming an impervious bottom ; 
next, a varying thickness of gravel lying in the blue clay, which dips ata 
gentle angle to the sea; above the gravel follows yellow clay, or rather a 
Volcanic mud, containing rolled lava stones, over which a post tertiary 
