The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-07
ExoDUs OF TaE EELs.

PROM the New York SUI.
ii You We're standing on the banks Of
the Delaware river. anywhere above
tide, IN the early summer, You would
see a novel sight. 1t would look to you
very much like a huge submerged
snake moving up the stream, close To
the shore. Ii is, in fact. compact
mass of minute snake-lilxe fishes,
millions of newly-hatched cells. travel
ing from the muddy bottom of the
river below tide TO the clear, fresh wa
tiers OF the upper river and its tribu-
taries. The cells are about an inch and
half or two inches long. They travel
rapidly. and in solid column as thick
through as mans body. BY the time
the rear guard has passed from the
blackish water at tide the head Of the
column will have reached point many
miles up the river.
The cells journey to the very head
waters of the river. mounting dams and
falls with the greatest facility. Hun
dreds of thousands of the fry leave the
main column at the mouth of every
tributary stream they encounter on the
upward march, and push their way up
those streams until some insurmounta-
bic barrier stays their further prog
reSS. And il has to be an absolutely
| insurmountable barrier, too, for these
little cells can overcome distractions in
| the channel in way that is simply in
| credible. They may be seen any day
during their migration wiggling their
tiny bodies up the face of almost per
pendicular rocks over which the noun
tain tributaries of the Delaware plunge
on their way to the main stream. II
the rocks are messy the cells succeed in
scaling them.
The cells do not confine themselves &c
the water in their procession up these
creeks, but leave the channel and
Chamber up the rocks along the borders
of the streams, where the moss is moist.
In this way they get around high falls
that would otherwise bring their jour
ney to an end. This facility of eel fry
in getting around PERCEPTIONS barriers
explains the presence of cells in ponds
and streams above waterfalls fifty and
one hundred feet high. Old fishermen
long overland Journeys. and that they
habitually leave the water at night and
forage along the shores for food. At
Bristol, Pa, there is a fisherman who
will make affidavit to the way he be-
came assured of this capacity in the
eel He had cleaned a lot of
fish one afternoon fifty feet from
the rivers edge, and left the heads
and other refuse of his catch lying on
the ground. The next morning the
refuse was gone, and there were SER
pentine trails in the sand between the
spot and the river. The tracings in
the sand did not resemble marks that
snakes might have made, and he be-
lieved they were the tracks of cells. To
make the matter sure. he baited an eel
pot with refuse Of fish and set IL on the
spot where he had cleaned his fish the
day before. The following morning be
had bushel of cells in the trap.
The ell fry, in their annual journey
up the river, are the constant prey OF
pickerel, black bass, kingfishers,
cranes, water snakes, turtles. and
other predatory fishes. birds and ami
mails, and hundreds of thousands Of
them fall victims TO those marauders.
But after every assault of their myriad
foes the ranks OF this steadily
moving column Of cells are quickly re-
formed, and the cells keep on their way,
reaching their summer homes in num-
bers vast enough 10 insure an abundant
supply to the fisherman
Some fishermen are Of the opinion
that the cells that go mp the river one
year do not return TO tide until the tail
OF the next year, when they seek again
the brsckish water of their nativity 20
spawn. Others believe that the young
eels mature so rapidly in the swift and
pure head waters that they are the fat
one and two-pound GELS that are taken
there in the fall succeeding their entry
into those waters. Either % these
theories is a matter Of mere speculs-
ton. The eel has been the special
study Of piscatorial ssvsnts for centn.
RES, and it a. still a mystery