44 
The half-grown larvae of ca. 7 cm. in length also appeared to be 
easily caught. There can be no doubt therefore that the reason 
why we did not find the early and half-grown larvae during our 
extensive investigations in 1903—06 west of the British Islands 
and France and further to the north, must have been that they do 
not occur there or, in other words, that the Con ger do es not 
spawn in those parts of the Atlantic where the species 
otherwise is so common. Through the discovery of larvae 
1 cm. long we have already obtained an indirect confirmation of this 
faet and, at the same time, the position of spawning-places of 
the European Conger in the Atlantic have been found. These 
larvae were taken during the latter balf of July at the surface 
over depths greater than 3000 m. and even greater than 4000 m., 
i. e. under quite similar conditions as in the Mediterranean. The 
discovery of these larvae, the smallest of which, to judge from the 
growth of artificially hatched Murænoid larvae, may be about three 
weeks old at the most, enables us now for the first time to outline 
with certainty spawning-places of a defiuite eel-species in the 
Atlantic. According to the available data C. vulgaris spawns in 
the Atlantic between 30° and 40° N. Lat., between 
Europe and the Azores in places where the depth 
exceeds 3000 m. In our material there is no indication that it 
spawns nearer North Europe and the British Islands and we must 
therefore draw the conclusiou that the Conger mi g rate south 
and westwards from these regions in order to spawn, 
in the same way as the fresh-water eel, a faet formerly pointed 
by me. It is probable that the Conger migrates in order to 
seek warm and very saline water. I am not able to say at what 
depth the eggs are spawned. But when the early larvae are found 
at the surface over depths of more than 4000 m., it seems mueh more 
probable that the Conger spawns pelagically than at the bottom. 
The occurrence of Conger larvae in the Atlantic seems to 
agree very well with what we know from the Mediterranean, thus 
the 1—2 cm. long stages are found in the summer, the half-grown 
