126 MARVELS OF FISH LIFE 
The young leptocephali are probably carried by the 
Atlantic drift towards the northern shores of Europe, 
and when they arrive on the Continental shelf, they 
complete their transformation and ascend fresh water 
as elvers. 
The eel is able to travel long distances over land, 
in order to get from ponds and reservoirs to water that 
communicates with the sea. This travelling is done by 
the fish wriggling through the damp grass during the 
night. I have myself on one occasion caught an eel, 
weighing over two pounds, which I found on a damp 
November morning some four hundred yards from the 
nearest water, and on one or two occasions I have met 
people who have had a similar experience. The move- 
ments of the eel through the damp grass are extra- 
ordinarily rapid, so that it is not necessary for the fish 
to be long out of water to cover considerable distances. 
In summing up the migrations of the eel, we see that 
the fish may travel overland from an inland pond to 
the nearest water that communicates with the sea— 
then descending the river the eel may journey hundreds 
or even thousands of miles out into the centre of the 
Atlantic. Here she spawns, and the leptocephali hatched 
from the eggs are carried by the Atlantic drift towards 
the shores of Northern Europe. The transformation 
occurs during the latter part of this journey, and is 
completed in the shallower waters of the Continental 
shelf, where the leptocephalus becomes a glass eel. The 
glass eel in turn becomes pigmented, and as an elver, 
