The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-10

perts as a kind of ricketts,, has been no
uceq IN many specimens. A specimen of
medium sized eel, such as was killed by
the Theus men, was once prepared, and
what appeared to be the bones of the
skeleton remained in an entirely cartil-
aginOus state Often the absence of
bones can be determined by noticing the
extreme hexibility of the jaws. This lack
OF bone formation, however, is not in
compatible with the healthy existence OF
the nSh, and neither does 1t prevent the
fish from attaining a large size. The
fish which are homeless have fewer teeth
than their brethren who are favored with
bones. The teeth Of homeless cells be-
come hard by the deposit of calcareous
salts.
Eels are the only fish whose young as
cend from the sea to attain maturity in
stead of descending from the fresh to the
salt water. The eggs are laid in the sea,
and in the early spring the young fish as
cend rivers in vast numbers, and when ar
rested by apparently impossible barriers
they viii leave the water and make their
way above the obstruction in endeaVOring
70 reach the point at winch they ann Al
the foot of Niagara Falls, which forms
an absolutely impossible barrier for cells,
hundreds of tons of these young fish have
been seen in the spring months. Many OBJ
servations of curious interest have been
made of the efforts of young eelS to as
eend fresh-water streams. They have been
known TO climb up steep aScents twenty
feet above water There was one remark
able case where young cells passed from
one stream to another by means of a tree
branches OF which dipped into the lower
stream Ascending these branches, the
cells squirmed across to the branches over
hanging the upper stream on the other
side of the tree and dropped into the wa
ter.
In Germany mature cells. according to
authentic records, have been known to
leave rivers in the night time, and where
gardens were adjacent to the river banks
the FISH have squirmed their way to pea
patches and eaten the young peas. Among
the scientific records of the Prussian ar
chiVes it is noted that "eels have been
caught upon dry land by the use of the
plough, for the peasants, on warm nights
when the cells are in search of peas, to-
ward morning, just before dawn, make
burrows with the plough between the cells
and the water, ana these are the nets
in which the eels are caught Since the
eel moves with ease only upon the grass,
its return to the water is cut of by the
soil which has been thrown up. The peas
ants consider II as q sign Of approaching
stormy weather when the cells come out
Of the water upon dry land" As this
wonderful statement is an official report
from the Prussian archives, it is worthy
OF notice.
Up to a century ago no man knew to a
certainty from whence cells came The
ancients believed that cells were produced
from slime dew, horsehair, old eelskins,
or snakeskins. For centuries it was
question whether cells were produced by
q female eel or by act of some other spe-
cies of fish, and also whether the eel was
an egglaying animal or whether it pro-
QuEE4 It's NDl0S dAtNE. Il Ills DpAAlDn was
held By Pliny, Rondelet. and Gessner.
Others believed that intestinal worms
found in mature cells were young cells,
which were TO be born alive. Il was not
until 1857 that eel eggs were discovered.
ana not until 1873 did naturalists discover
a male eel. Even now some scientists hold
that at first young cells are Of undiferen-
tiated sex. and that they have the tendency
under the influence of fresh water to be-
come females. while salt water tends to
develop male characters. Even after ma
Z
in the hands Of an expert TO distinguish
a male from female eel.