284 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



to the creek nearly an hour afterward and found the school still in line and still going. 

 How long these eels had been running neither he nor any one else knew, and it was 

 impossible to estimate the numbers, which must have been enormous. All who saw 

 this procession said they fully believed that eels were largely responsible for the 

 decrease of the trout in our streams." The Christian World makes this contribution 

 on the subject of elvers: "The eels which descend to the sea never return, but young 

 eels or elvers come up from the sea in the spring, millions at a time. The elvers have 

 been seen to travel along the bank of a river in a continuous band, or eel rope, which 

 has been known to glide upward for fifteen days together." 



Next to the Cliristian World clipping I find one alleged to be a reprint from a 

 scientific paper, giving what Grassi discovered, only it does not give what Grassi said. 

 I mention this simply to show that clippings are not always reliable. 



It is scarcely necessary to say more about the elvers running up streams. The 

 sight is not unfamiliar to many anglers and others, and what I have quoted describes 

 the ascent as accurately as needs be, when there are no obstructions in the water to 

 overcome. When they come to falls or dams they pass above them or around them 

 if there is the least moisture, although thousands, perhaps millions, perish in 

 the attempt. 



EELS ON LAND. 



Giinther says of elvers ascending streams: " In the course of the summer young 

 individuals ascend rivers in incredible numbers, overcoming all obstacles, ascending 

 vertical walls and floodgates, entering every large and swollen tributary, and making 

 their way even over terra firma to waters shut off from all communication with 

 rivers." An unknown German writer says: "The small size of the gill opening 

 makes it possible for the eel to live a long time out of the water, and it is possible 

 that in their wanderings over moist meadows they may find places in which there are 

 snails and other desirable food." 



From time to time the newspapers publish items concerning the finding of eels in 

 the grass a considerable distance from water, and I have called attention to some of 

 these in this column In May I was leaving New York for Albany on the fast mail, 

 and going into the smoking compartment found Col. W. C. Sanger, of Sangerfield, in 

 this State, who said he had a friend with him whom he would like me to meet. The 

 friend (Mr. Georges A. Glaenzer, a French artist) and I talked fish over our cigars until 

 he said : " I will tell you something which I never tell until I know that the person 

 I am to tell it to understands much about fish, their habits and peculiarities, for it 

 really seems improbable on the face of it." What he told me was that on his family 

 estate, near Paris, was a pond containing fish for the family table. As the city of 



