THE BOOK OF FISHES 
Painted by Hashime Murayama 
COMMON EEL {Anguilla rostratd) 
The Eel is a fish that spends its long life in fresh water, descending to the sea in old age to spawn but once 
and die. For centuries its mysterious ways have puzzled naturalists who have discovered recently that it spawns 
near the Bermuda Islands in deep water, the transparent larval Eels not seeking the rivers until a year old, when 
they appear as Elvers working upstream. 
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