3o8 SALT-WATER FISHES 



carried in sludge boats and dumped into the sea at the mouth 

 of the river, to be cast up on the foreshore at Southend and 

 other places, where what used to be bright sand is now slimy- 

 mud. 



One of the chief difficulties fish culture in this country has 

 to contend with is this dumping into our rivers and into the 

 sea round our coasts of all the noxious filth of our towns. 

 Even where it does not make oyster culture impossible, it 

 makes typhoid only too possible. 



The Eel 



Just as we pay away millions sterling for foreign hens' eggs 

 which we might grow at home, so do we pay thousands for 

 foreign eels, instead of looking to our own rivers. In Scotland 

 alone more eels are produced every year than would supply the 

 whole English market ; but the Scotch hate the sight of an eel, 

 and, as eels are very rarely seen, no notice is taken of them. 



In their investigations respecting the eel, the editors of the 

 Norwegian Report already referred to comment on the igno- 

 rance of the country people in many places as to the existence 

 of the fish in their rivers. " Only at very few places did the 

 inhabitants know that the eel descended the rivers each autumn, 

 and at still fewer places did they attempt to derive any advan- 

 tage from the migration, possibly because most of the people 

 regard the eel as a valueless and uneatable fish." 



Most anglers in this country who know anything about 

 eels believe that there are two kinds in our rivers, the yellow- 

 bellied broad-nosed, and the silver-bellied, sharp-nosed ; but 

 Dr. Petersen, of Denmark, has proved conclusively that these 

 are one and the same fish. It is yellow with a broad head 

 when living and feeding in our lakes and rivers ; but when its 

 sexual organs mature and it is time for it to migrate to the sea, 

 it assumes the glossy, silvery coat, large eyes, and pointed head. 

 If eels breed only in the sea, what I cannot understand is that 



