COMMON EEL. 
1033 
of the Guden, which falls into Randers Fjord (the Cat- 
tegat), Feddersen® found among descending Fels 2 1 / 2 
— 4 dm. long numbers of males with yellow belly, 
amounting at the first-mentioned place to 80 per cent 
of the catch. In Lakes Hjul, Bras, and Avn, within 
the same river-basin, similar males were taken with 
Eel-seines. A month later (15th — 17th July) the males 
in and near the Lakes of Silkesborg had begun to de- 
velop the white belly of the migratory dress, but judging 
by the take were fewer. He made similar observations 
at Maarup Mill, between Lakes Orum and Ove, on the 
other side of Liim Fjord, and in Westen-see (Province 
of Rendsburg, Holstein). It thus seemed probable at 
all these places that a descent of young Eels, especially 
males, takes place in summer, before the general descent 
of older females, commences. The males, like the fe- 
males, consequently spend a portion of their life in fresh 
water ; but the assumption that the Eel spawns in fresh 
water, side by side with its normal breeding-season in 
the sea, first requires authoritative confirmation. 
Not all the Eel-fry, as we have seen, ascend into 
fresh water during the first year of their existence; nor 
do all females of a size that indicates maturity under- 
take migrations. In the lagoons of Comacchio the fisher- 
men have long been aware of this, and call the large 
Eels that do not migrate Pasciuti b . Near the same 
locality these forms are also found in the sea, off the 
coast; and Jacoby described them as broad-snouted, 
small-eyed, yellow-bellied, high-finned, and with glassy 
ovaries, destitute of fat and containing transparent eggs 
with little, if any, granulation. He explains them too 
as sterile females; but whether this sterility is perma- 
nent or temporary, still remains an open question, for 
many broad-nosed Eels have ovaries of normal develop- 
ment. In Sweden they are known on account of their 
voracity as sluk-al (ravenous Eel), the Danish klcepal. 
They do not rove in shoals, but lead a more solitary 
life; yet are often caught, for they freely take a hook, 
the best bait being Roach. Jacoby extols their de- 
licious flesh, “which melts in the mouth”. Kroyer 
/ 
describes their flesh as hard, dry, and lean, and 
their skin as hard and tough. The difference may 
easily be due to the recency or remoteness of the 
spawning-season . 
In recent times ichthyologists have been most in- 
clined to the belief that after spawning the Eel diesb 
This opinion may be correct, for it is partly true of 
the Salmonoids, and applies to the Lampreys, from 
which the Eels do not differ widely in the structure 
of the generative organs. On one or two occasions 
dead Eels, spent, as it is stated, have been found on 
the seashore, and a skipper is said to have sailed some 
distance in the North Sea among dead Eels, floating at 
the surface. Large Eels have never been found mi- 
grating in any number to fresh water. But this is no 
adequate solution of the point, for that a re-ascent may 
take place, though it is seldom observed, appears from 
Robin’s d discovery of female Eels, with the stomach 
full of marine animals — Annelids ( Eunice sanguined) 
and shellfish (Doris) — which they had brought far up 
the Adour, 40 kilom. from the sea. The so-called blot- 
alar and slukdlar in the sea must also be taken into 
consideration. They are demonstrably not always ste- 
rile, nor has it yet been proved that the larger among 
them have never spawned. 
The Eel is greedily preyed on by mammals, such 
as otters, seals, and dolphins, by piscivorous birds, and 
by larger fishes; but its most destructive enemy is 
undoubtedly man. To a good digestion its flesh is one 
of the most excellent foods, whether boiled or fried 
— less indigestible in the latter form — fresh or salted, 
smoked or marinaded. The young are made in many 
places into Eel-cake (cf. above, p. 973). The tough 
skin of the Eel has been most generally employed as 
material for flail-thongs. 
The great Eel-fisheries have contributed in a high 
degree to our knowledge of the Eel’s habits, for the 
method of setting his tackle which the fisherman has 
learnt from the experience of ages best indicates how 
the Eel conies and goes. When the Eel descends the 
rivers, large or small lanor, a kind of seine with fine 
meshes in the bosom, are stretched across the channel, 
or Eel-traps ( allms ) are constructed in the slopes of the 
streams. These are timbered like log-houses, but on 
the lower side chinks are left between the logs, wide 
enough to allow of the passage of the water, but too 
narrow for the Eel to slip through. On the side facing 
the current a hole is made, in which is inserted a 
“ Dansk Fiskeritidende 1893, p. 333. 
6 “Pasturers”. 
c See. Jacoby, ]. c., p. 55. 
d Comptes Rendus, Fevr. 21, 1881, p. 382. 
