The St. Johns herald., 1892-09-08
ABOUT EELS.
Queer Facts Concerning a Myste-
 rious Animal
Why the Fish Commissioner Does Not Give Away Their Eggs-Some In- ~ teresting Things Learned by /
 Scientists.

Every now ana then some one applles to the fish commission at Washington for consignment of eels' eggs where with to stock pond or stream. The request is invariably refused, not be cause there is any intention to be disc bliging. but for the reason that nobody in this world knows whether eels lay eggs or not. If they do man has never beheld them, and to get hold of any is quite out of the question. In case you want to establish eels in your water preserves you can buy young ones by the pailful at cheap rate, and they will grow big enough to eat or send to the market within three years.
 It may fairly be said that the eel, as to it's breeding, is the most mysterious animal in existence. The New York Sun says its method of propagation has puzzled science for centuries, and has been subject of more or less supersti- tious speculation among many people for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians had their own theories re- specting the matter. Some authorities have contended that eels grow up from horse hair, which in some strange man. ner became vitalized. Others have held that they were generated sponta- neously from slime, while others still have gravely advanced the belief that they came from the skins of old eels, or similar exuvi@ of water snakes That cells mate with water snakes is very generally accepted as truth Most popular among people who get their liv- ing from the water, however, is the theory that cells are the progeny of va- rious other fishes. The Sardinian fish ermen assert that they are produced by certain kind of water beetle, which for this reason is called ''mother of eels." The Greek poets, who fathered all children otherwise unaccounted for upon Jupiter. declared that this god was the progenitor of the eel. l.
 All this mystery about the eel, as science has learned in the last few years, is due to the fact that it lays its eggs or brings forth its young alive in the sea, where no one has a chance to observe the process. Other fishes, like the shad, leave the ocean to spawn in fresh water streams, but this curious and slippery customer does precisely the reverse. The young eels, newly born or matched, leave the salt water and make their way in armies up the rivers inland. Obstacles apparently insur- mountable they use the utmost ingenu- ity in passing, even travelling consider able distances on dry land in order to get around an obstruction. In the spring and summer any visitor at Mag ara Falls who descends beneath the great sheet of water at the foot of the falls will see literally hundreds of carloads of small cells wriggling over the rock and squirming in the whirlpools. Of course it is impossible for them to get over the falls, and thus it happens that although cells have always been plenti- ful in Lake Ontario there were none in Lake Erie until they were planted in the latter body of water artifcially.
 masmuch as eels must go to the sea in order to propagate their species they are found not to multiply at all when placed in ponds that are lard- locked, although in such places they will grow rapidly and be healthy. It costs so little to purchase young ones by the quantity that this IS no obstacle to the usefulness of stocking inland waters with these fish. They have many very important advantages from the economic point of view, inasmuch as they will feed on anything dead or alive, will thrive in water clear or mud dy and at any temperature, and will re- quire no looking out for. However, in rivers like the Susquehanna, where gill-nets are. used, eels are very unde- sirable. 1t is not unusual, upon hauling the nets in that stream and others farther south, to find that the catch has been entirely eaten up by myriads of the squirming robbers, which have left little beside heads and backbones. It has been found advantageous by the fish commission to plant eels in the up- per great lakes and the Mississippi. They have also been introduced very successfully in California.
 ' In all probabilities eels lay eggs, just as do nearly all other fishes. The only difference is that they deposit them in the sea, instead of in fresh water. It is believed that the mother eel dies soon after she has spawned. For couple of centuries past efforts have been made by eminent scientific men to dis cover the organs of generation in male and female eels. It is only possible now to discover the difference between the sexes by microscopic examination. About fifteen years ago the celebrated Dr. Virchow, of Berlin, published an advertisement for female eel bearing eggs, offering considerable prize for the specimen. Within short time the advertisement was copied all over Europe, and the Herr Doctor received such enormous quantities of eels in packages that the affair became quite serious. So many thousand pounds of the very perishable article were con- signed to him that it was an important question how to get rid of the material, and one of the most conical papers sug- gested that perhaps it would be well that he should make regulation re- quiring all samples to be sent smoked.