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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



distance loomed the purple, snow-clad 

 peaks of Armenia. 



The contrast between the scenery on 

 the northern side of the range and that 

 on the southern side was most extraordi- 

 nary. Behind us rose the high ridges and 

 terraced mesas of Daghestan, already 

 covered with a white mantle of snow ; 

 before us lay the green fertile valleys of 

 Georgia and the Alazan, smiling under 

 a midsummer sun. Behind us, Siberia ; 

 before us, Italy, and around us the snow 

 and the clouds of the high Alps. 



The view from the crest of the great 

 range, as the clouds gradually blew away, 

 was one of almost unimaginable extent, 

 diversity, and grandeur; but we were so 

 thoroughly chilled that we did not give 

 much time to enjoyment of it, and after 

 drinking a cup of Kakhetian wine and 

 eating a cake or two of unleavened Da- 

 ghestan bread, we started down the long 



zigzag trail which led into the valley of 

 the Alazan. 



At noon we stood 12,000 feet above the 

 sea, on the old, hardened snow which 

 covered the crest of the main range. At 

 8 o'clock in the evening we were riding 

 through dark olive orchards and vine- 

 yards redolent with the odor of ripening 

 grapes, listening to the monotonous 

 croaking of frogs, and breathing the 

 warm fragrant air of a night in June. 



In eight hours we had passed from 

 midwinter to midsummer, and the snowy 

 crest of the main range showed faintly, 

 like a dim streak of white, against the 

 dark blue, star-spangled, trans-Caucasian 

 sky. Just before midnight we reached 

 Prince Djordjadzi's estate and, dismount- 

 ing from our tired horses, entered the 

 courtyard gate of his spacious, white- 

 walled mansion, in the far-famed valley 

 of the Alazan. 



THE MYSTERIOUS LIFE 

 COMMON EEL 



OF THE 



By Hugh M. Smith 



United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries 



Author of ''Oysters: the World's Most Valuable Water Crop," ''Our Pish 

 Immigrants/' "Americas Most Valuable Pishes;' "The Pearl Pisheries of Ceylon," 

 "King Herring," "Some Great Pishes of the Sea," "Brittany, the Land of the 

 Sardine," etc., in the National Geographic Magazine. 



ONE of the most familiar, but least 

 known, fishes of the United States 

 is the common eel. It reaches 

 the height of its development on the At- 

 lantic seaboard and in the rivers dis- 

 charging thereon, but is found also in the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and thence to northern 

 Brazil, in the Mississippi River and trib- 

 utaries, and in the Great Lakes. A very 

 closely related species abounds in western 

 Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, and 

 extends its range to the Azores and Ca- 

 naries.''' 



In recent years much attention has 

 been devoted to the study of the eel, and 



* Considerable doubt formerly existed as to 

 the relationship of the eels of the two sides of 

 ^he North Atlantic Ocean. It is now known 



only a few phases of its life now remain 

 obscure. The established facts are in 

 some respects more extraordinary than 

 the fabulous views of ancient and me- 

 dieval writers and the extravagant hy- 

 potheses of some modern investigators. 

 When the complete life of the eel is 

 cleared up, it will doubtless be shown to 

 have a more remarkable history than any 

 other fish possesses. 



In the United States the eel, although 

 a valuable food fish, is not nearly so im- 

 portant as in western Europe, particularly 

 in Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, 



that they are entirely distinct, one constant 

 point of difference being the possession by the 

 American eel of about seven less vertebrae than 

 the European fish has. 



