The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-05
ANNUAL MARCH OF THE EELs.
The Amusing Way in Which the Wriggieri
Get from the Sea to the Mountains.


Get from the Sea to the Mountains.
Milford pa Letter in New York sun.
Visitors to the Sawkill Falls, a famous cata-
ract a mile from this village, may witness a
novel sight at this time OF year if they climb
down into the gorge at the foot of the falls. and
look closely at the bed of moss that covers the
face of the rock on either side of the great body
of water that tumbles over the precipice. The
moss will be seen to be alive with what at flrst
sight the stranger I'll take to be myriad of worms
two or three inches long, wriggling and squirm-
ing upward in very evident endeavor TO reach
the top of the ledge. If the stranger should ask
a native what kind of worm it is that is so per-
sstently engaged in this endeavor to squirm its
way to the summit, the native would undoubt-
eddy reply:
s'Them hain't worms boss. Them's cells"
And so they are-young cells that have made
their way up from their birthplace in the great
beds of mud at tidewater of the Delaware. a hun
dred miles below, and which are only one small
body of the main column that rusheS ND the
river Other portions of the main army are adj
vancing in the same manner up all the streams
that come down from the mountains on either
side of the valley, and unite their waters with
the river, each body trying in the same way to
overcome obstacles similar to the Sawkill Falls in
its progress toward the headwaters.
This annual march, as it may be called, of the
young cells from tidewater to the upper portions
Of the rivers and its branches is a most interest
ing sight. Standing on the bank Of the river
pushing steadily onward. The mass resembles
a huge serpent. 1t moves near the shores. Ii
is very black. and from eight to twelve inches
through. If the spectator waits to see the end
of the moving mass he must remain the
shore for three or four days for it will be that
long in passing. The cells which form
this great column none of them more
than two inches in length, many of theni no
larger around than knitting needle and all
of them are so compactly massed as to form. an
almost solid body. By the time the smallest of
the cells have gone zone hundred miles up the
river thew will be of length of two three
inches so rapidly does the eel fry grow. The
compact form in which those young cells make
their exodus from the brackish waters of the
lower river is retained until they reach the rapid
upper waters, where, stated, large bodies de-
ploy into the different creeks. These separa
tons from the main column are made as If by
Encouragement. During the strange journey
up the river the moving mass s open TO
the attacks of maraudng pickerel black
bass, and other ravenous inhabitants of
the river. which lie in wai4 among the rocks
and weeds along the Shore and prey to repletion
on the tender fry. pickerel will dart from his
lurking place upon the cells, and dash clear
through the column with his ponderous jaws
wide open, and fill his capacious mouth st one
swoop. A slight commotion in the line will fol-
low these assaults, but the next instant the
ranks will be again solidly formed. The eel that
was no larger than milliner's needle when it
left the place of its nativity In the spring, will
be foot or more in length when it starts on its
return to tide, as naturalsts agree that it inva-
riably does next fall.
In passing up the Sawkill creek the young cells
successfully scale two or three high dams
their way to the falls They wriggle their way
up through the moss the rocks at the falls
with apparent ease, but, although they nave I'M
doubtedly been doing the same thing for ages, it
is evident that none has ever succeeded in get
ting over the top Of the precipice, for there are
no cells in the creek above the falls, while the
stream below the cataract is alive with them.
The juttng rocks at the summit of the ledge
prove an insurmountable barrier to their further
progress
But while the young cells have never succeeded
in getting above the Sawkill Falls and populat-
ing the upper waters of this creek, there are
other streams emptying in the Delaware and pre-
senting obstacles which to any spectator would
seem to be greater than the Sawkill cataract.
where the cells attain their object, for these
streams and the mountain lakes which are their
headwaters famous eel grounds. This is
notably the case in the outlet of Metaqua
pond in Sullivan county, New York, and the out
let Of Wescoline pond in this county. On the
former there is perpendicular waterfall
100 feet in height On the Wescoine outlet
there several high dams, one of them wall
of solid masonry twenty feet high. Yet in the
waters above all these obstacles the eel fisher
man sets his eel lines or his traps and launches
his barbed spear with a success seldom met with
elsewhere. IL the naturalist denies that the eel
surmount the rocky barriers thus placed IN
its way, then he must abandon his stubborn
theory that the eel necessarily returns to salt
water to breed. 1t would seem from the fact
that the fry unable co scale the Sawkill Falls,
and that there are no cells above the falls;
that the tidewater- breeding theory is cor
rect: but then there are other facts
well known in this region that would
seem to disprove that theory. There are lakes,
high among the hills, notably Parker's lake, in
the lower part of Pike county. which present no
apparently possible channel by which cells could
reach these waters in their journey from salt
water Yet they contain eels in abundance and
of the finest quality. Some naturalists maintain
that cells can journey from long distances over
land from one water to another. That might be
level stretch of country was the connecting
link; but it would be an amazingly gifted ard
tenacious eel that could make the trip from the
nearest branch of the Delaware, over the high
barrens of Pike county. to Parker's lake.