of the Fishery Board for Scotland, 



215 



mm. in length, portions of the sides were free from pigment. All the 

 elvers which showed more pigmentation than the above, had attained the 

 full coloration similar to that of the adult. They were of various sizes, 

 66, 71, 83, 85, 87 mm. in length. The colour of the dorsum approached 

 very nearly that of Laminaria, and was due to the presence of stellate 

 black pigment corpuscles on a yellowish ground. Jourdain * t was able to 

 1 get all the intermediate forms between the montee and the young eel 

 ' perfectly characterised. The young eels, at first transparent, become pig- 

 1 mented little by little ; the scales appear in those individuals whose 

 ' length approaches 10 cm., and it is on the abdominal region that they 

 1 are first seen to appear.' Large numbers of young eels, from 3-4 inches 

 in length, were noticed on the Elbe, by Von Ehlers ; they were all dark 

 coloured. 



t ' The development of the eel from the civelle to the adult is regular 

 * without metamorphosis, without the replacement of foetal organs, which 

 ' disappear, by others which replace them permanently.' 



The elvers, which are recorded as caught in the sea at some distance 

 from the shore, are few in number. Robin procured them by means of 

 the dredge at several kilometres from the shore, and also captured them 

 on the shore at low water. Certain transparent eels which were caught 

 in salt water are preserved at the Laboratory. The sizes, dates, and 

 localities of capture are given in the following Table : — 



Locality. 



Bottom townet, off Sarclet, Caithness, 



s.s. 'Southesk.' 

 Bottom townet, a little E. of May I., 



Forth, 'Garland.' 

 M'Intosh net, Inverkei thing Bay, 



Inside, Forth, 'Garland.' 

 M'Intosh net, off Anstruther, Forth, 



1 Garland.' 

 Midwater net, St Andrews Bay, ' Dal- 



housie.' 



Dng up on E. sands, St Andrews. 

 MTntosh net, vicinity of Culross, 



Forth, 'Garland.' 

 From saltwater pool, E. rocks, St 



Andrews. 



The view has been generally accepted that the elvers which appear in 

 spring are the young of the eels which had migrated to the sea in the 

 preceding autumn. The age of the young eels has been reckoned at 

 from three to four months. The adult eels which migrate in October or 

 November, probably will not spawn earlier than December. What age 

 then must we assign to the elvers captured in January 1 They are as 

 large as those procured in March, April, and May, and it is exceedingly 

 improbable that they are younger than the latter. Questions such as 

 these it is impossible to answer until further information is obtained 

 regarding the spawning of eels. 



Regarding the rate of growth of eels Packard states that several 

 thousand of young eels, about 2 inches in length, were placed in a mill- 

 pond, by Mr D. G. Colwell in June 1879. In November of the same 



* Jourdain. Loc. cit. 



\ Robin. 'Note sur quebjues eaiaeteres des Anguilles, des Congress, et des Lepto- 

 ' cephales,' in Journal de V Anatomie et de la Physiologic, 1880. 



Date. 



Number of 

 Specimens. 



Size in 

 mm. 



Jan. 12-14, 1891, . 





66 



Jan. 28-30, 1891, . 



2 



65 



March 1, 1895, 



1 



70 



March 21, 1891, . 





67'5 



March 28, 1889, . 



iv 



65 



April 1885, . 



i 



66 



April 12, 1892, . 



i 



71 5 



May 8, 1895, 





67-5 



