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Part III.- — Thirteenth Annual Report 



Jacoby and Comisa* consider that there is an eel found throughout the 

 year in very many, Comisa thinks all, brackish waters, which is a barren 

 female. This sterile female, according to Comisa, may possibly, under 

 certain circumstances, develop into a normal female. 



The important question, as to whether or not the eel takes food dur- 

 ing its migration, was solved by Jacoby, who examined the stomachs of 

 many hundreds of migrating eels. He invariably found the stomachs 

 empty. He says that when the eels commence to migrate to the sea they 

 take no food, just as other fish do during the spawning period. 4 The 

 ' stomachs of those which do not migrate, both of those which are not yet 

 ' able to migrate, and of those which never go to the sea, but spend their 

 ' whole life in the lagoons, were more or less filled with remnants of food.' 

 Jourdain examined a large number of eels caught in the bay of La 

 Hougue (Manche), where the numerous water-courses bring them. The 

 stomachs of certain individuals contained Arenicolx : those of the greatest 

 number were empty. 



Observers differ in opinion as to how far from the shore the spawning 

 of the eel takes place. Packard thought that the eel probably spawns in 

 shallow, salt, or brackish water in harbours, and at the mouths of estuaries 

 and rivers, where it is well known eels are speared in winter. It is clear, 

 writes Norny,f that the eels hibernate in winter to breed, the roe forms 

 and matures during the period, and the young are hatched just at the 

 end of this period. According to Jourdain, the eel which is ready for 

 spawning descends to the sea, and remains in the neighbourhood of the 

 coast. Jacoby, however, considered that the development of the repro- 

 ductive organs takes place in the sea, not near the coast, but farther out 

 in deep water. The latter view, to some extent, receives confirmation 

 from the fact that the only ripe eel which is recorded as caught in salt 

 water was captured 20 miles from land. The following facts seem to 

 indicate that the eels, which come to St Andrews Bay from the Eden, do 

 not remain near the shore but go out to deep water. During spring an 

 active plaice fishing is carried on in the bay. The hooks are baited with 

 sand-worms (Arenicolce), and the lines are shot parallel, and close to 

 the shore, across the mouth of the Eden. The bottom of the bay from 

 low-water mark to a line drawn parallel to the shore, at a distance of 

 about a mile, is practically covered with lines. No eel has ever been 

 caught on any of these lines. The sand-worm with which the lines are 

 baited is the worm which is used for the i tot,' and by means of the 1 tot ' 

 large numbers of eels are caught in the Eden during summer. The fact 

 that no eels are captured in the bay at this time does not of necessity 

 prove that the eels are absent. It may be due to their not taking food 

 during the spawning period. As in the case of other fishes, however, it 

 is not improbable that occasionally a spawing eel would be taken on the 

 lines, if the eels were present in large numbers. Chemi and Desniarcst f 

 do not hesitate to state that the eel spawns upon the mud after a kind 

 of copulation, that the eggs remain adhering together, joined by a 

 glutinous secretion analogous to that^which connects the egg of the fresh 

 water perch, and forms little pellets or rounded globules. Each female, 

 as they have succeeded in observing, produces annually many of these 

 masses. Decker § claimed that eels spawn, and are hatched on muddy 

 and slimy bottoms at a depth of 10-15 feet. According to Jacoby the 



* Seunebogan Comisa on the 1 Sex of Eels and on the Sterile Females,' in Zeitschr. 

 f. Fischerei, von Dr C. Weigelt, 1893, No. 4. 



t Norny, 'Artificial Propagation of Eels,' Bull. U.S. Fish. Commission, vol. v., 

 1885. 



+ Brown Goode. Loc. cit. 



§ ' Les Anguilles males comparees anx femelles,' Journal de V Anatomic, etc., 1881. 

 ' Zur Naturgeschichte der Aale,' — Dcutsch Fischerci-zcitung , 1881. 



