252 TACKLE—CURIOUS METHODS—SILURUS—EELS 
habits with those of other insects.’’! ‘‘ The beetle in the act 
of parturition ’’ is represented on the frontispiece ! 
The fact that this beetle is evidently a dead one would not, 
as the Bibliotheca Piscatoria rather wickedly puts it, even if 
known to the writer, cause him to alter his opinion one jot! 
It was only in 1896—strange, indeed, that a problem which 
so many keen intellects had attacked should remain unelucidated 
for over two thousand years !—that the mode of reproduction 
and development of the Eel was first surmised, and then for the 
most part ascertained by Professor Grassi and Dr. Galandruccio. 
But not till 1904 were most of the surmises of the Italian 
investigators placed beyond question, and the mode of repro- 
duction, etc., established beyond doubt by Johann Schmidt of 
Copenhagen. 
The now accepted view (stated shortly) is as follows: 
freshwater Eels approach maturity when about six years old, 
and then change their colour from browny-yellow to silver, 
whence “ Silver Eels.’’ In this bridal attire and with eyes 
enlarged, they find their way from the rivers to the sea, and far 
out into deep waters of the ocean. The pace at which they 
travel on their way to the sea cannot be computed exactly, but 
two marked Eels have been caught whose record was nineteen 
kilometres in two days. Meek ? states that neither the exact 
locality nor the approximate depth of the spawning is as yet 
known, but that there can be no doubt that the spawning region 
lies deep and far out in the Atlantic beyond the Continental 
shelf. 
The Times, Sept. 25, 1920, announces that Dr. J. Schmidt 
has just discovered the spawning place of fresh-water Eels 
to be not far S. of Bermuda, or about 27 deg. N. and 60 deg. W., 
much farther W. than he anticipated. Of the many marvels 
of the ichthyic world this is, perhaps, the greatest. It taxes, 
it transcends, our powers adequately to conceive the hereditary 
instinct or gauge the enduring strength which impels fish—as yet 
1 It is curious to find that a similar belief was held in Sardinia: according 
to Jacoby, the water beetle (Dytiscus roeselii) is there believed to be the 
progenitor of the Eel, and is accordingly called the ‘‘ Mother of the Eels’ 
‘Turrell, op. cit., p. 37). 
2 Migrations of Fishes, London, 1916. 
