. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 255 The Migrations of the Eel By G. P. Farran In a paper recently published in the Transactions of the Roval Socielv of London, Dr. Johs. Schimdt, the Danish zoologist, has given us almost the last word in the answer to the riddle : " Where do eels come from ? " which for some thousands of years has excited the curiosity of mankind. Strange as have been the theories put forward from the time of Aristotle to the present day, the truth as disclosed by Dr. Schmidt is no less strange. Curious ribbon-like fishes, about 2J in. long, clear as glass, with poin
. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 255 The Migrations of the Eel By G. P. Farran In a paper recently published in the Transactions of the Roval Socielv of London, Dr. Johs. Schimdt, the Danish zoologist, has given us almost the last word in the answer to the riddle : " Where do eels come from ? " which for some thousands of years has excited the curiosity of mankind. Strange as have been the theories put forward from the time of Aristotle to the present day, the truth as disclosed by Dr. Schmidt is no less strange. Curious ribbon-like fishes, about 2J in. long, clear as glass, with pointed head and tail and opaque silvery eyes, to which the name of Leptocephali has been given, have long been known in the Straits of Messina, where they were brouglit to the surface in considerable numbers by ascending currents and whirlpools. These fishes came in time to be regarded as the larvae of eel-like fishes (abnormal forms according to one school of thought), but it was not until 1S93 that the Italians Grassi and Calandruccio, as recorded by the former in a paper, also read before the Royal Societj', definiteh' recognised, by rearing it through its later stages, that the form known as Leptocephahis hrevirostris was in reality the larva of the common eel. It was at this stage in our knowledge of the eel that Dr. Schmidt started his work by the capture, to the west of the Faeroes, in May 1904, of the first specimen of Leptocephahis hrevirostris known in the Atlantic. A second specimen, as Dr. Schmidt records, was taken three months later off the west coast of Ireland by the Irish fishery cruiser Helga. We may here review briefly what is kaiown of the eel during its sojourn in fresh water. The eel, when feeding and growing, is characterised by its greenish back, yellow belly, broad head, and small eyes. Formerly in this stage it was regarded as a distinct species, and was called the frog-mouthed eel or yellow eel. When the adult or migrating stage approaches, which may be
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