606 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
tip. They are made up of 19 branched rays and a 
thick membrane. The ventral fins are rather small 
and lie close to each other, in front of the pectoral 
tins. They contain 3 rays, which ai*e branched at the 
tip and very difficult to distinguish. 
The only external difference between the sexes 
that we have been able to discover, is that the males 
are generally smaller and more slender than the females. 
The coloration of the Eelpont is not very diver- 
sified. The ground-colour of the entire fish is yellowish 
brown, the under surface of the head and belly being 
grayish yellow. On the sides of the body, back to the 
depression in the dorsal fin, we find two rows of more 
or less distinct transverse spots, 13 — 15 in each row. 
The spots of the lower row alternate more or less re- 
gularly with those of the upper and at the upper cor- 
ner touch the latter, which advance some way over the 
dorsal fin. Behind the incision in this fin the spots 
grow gradually less distinct towards the end of the tail. 
The outer rim of the dorsal fin is black. The outer 
margin of the anal fin is flame-yellow, like the tips of 
the ventral fins. The pectoral fins are darker than the 
others and edged with more dirty yellow. Several 
blackish spots occur on the upper part of the head, 
between the eyes and the tip of the snout, and on the 
cheeks, growing rather more indistinct on the gill-cover. 
The iris is dark brown, with a fine, light yellow ring 
round the pupil. 
The internal organs remind us more of the Cotti 
than of the Cods. The oesophagus and stomach are 
short, the bottom of the latter extending hardly beyond 
a line with the middle of the pectoral fins when folded, 
and bending downwards to form a short pyloric part, 
turned in a forward direction, at the end of which we 
find two short, saccate bulbs or rudimentary pyloric 
appendages, one on each side. At the middle of its 
length the intestine forms a winding bend, a curved 
double coil. At first sight the liver seems to consist 
of one single lobe, which curves upwards and surrounds 
the small gall-bladder, the stomach, and the oesophagus; 
but this lobe is divided distinctly enough into three 
parts, with the middle (outermost) lobe shortest and the 
right lobe longest. The spleen lies just behind the 
bottom of the stomach and is small and flat, at the 
upper (dorsal and also left) end pointed, at the lower 
end rounded. The air-bladder is wanting. The testes 
of the male are smooth and oblong, lie close to each 
other, and at the spawning season grow far forward, 
close to the kidneys. The most remarkable of the in- 
ternal organs of the Eelpout is the ovary of the female. 
On opening a female which is not gravid we find the 
ovary, which is simple and of oval form, lying right 
under the kidneys and along the spinal column. It is 
of thin texture and partly filled with yellow eggs of 
the size of a pin’s head. On examining the ovary after 
the beginning of the period of gestation, when the ovary 
serves as a uterus, we find the walls firmer and pene- 
trated by a great number of bloodvessels, while to the 
inner surface are attached small, oblong, transparent 
vesicles, which contain a clear fluid and a tiny embryo 
floating in the fluid. At the last stage we find the sac 
enormously distended and full of closely packed young 
specimens lying free within the ovary itself. The ve- 
sicles have collapsed, but are still attached to the walls. 
During this period we generally find a great number 
of the young expelled into the abdominal cavity itself 
by the bursting of the ovary. In a female 31 cm. long 
we have found altogether 196 young, each 37 mm. in 
length. Seventy-five of them lay in the abdominal 
cavity, the rest within the ovary. In another female, 
322 mm. in length, we have counted 262 young. Other 
writers state the number of the young at over 300. 
The Eelpout seems to arrive at maturity early, for 
distinct eggs have been found in specimens only 15 cm. 
long. Its faculty of giving birth to living young pre- 
supposes an actual copulation between the sexes, as well 
as the fertilization of the eggs within the body of the 
mother. However, no such copulation has yet been ob- 
served; nor caii any certain time of year positively be 
given as the spawning- season of the Eelpout, for at 
almost all seasons we may find gravid and parturient 
females and at the same time others that contain only 
small eggs. The former are most often met with, how- 
ever, in December and January. This agrees with 
Benecke’s statement (1. c.) that during the spring and 
summer months — from March to August — the males 
have bright orange fins and wear a kind of festal dress. 
Brehm has observed in a salt-water aquarium the 
manner in which the Eelpout gives birth to its young. 
“The fish,” he says", “which even at other times is slug- 
gish, seeks a certain spot in the aquarium several hours 
before parturition and stays there motionless, until all 
Bremh’s Thierleben , 2:te Aufl., Die Fische , p. 138. 
