The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-11-02

mountains conger cells have often been
taken floating helplesssly at the surface.
Tens of thousands of helpless fish are
then captured. They can progress rapid
Y in any direction, but cannot descend
because the action of the frosty water
causes the air in their swimming bladders
to expand to such degree that the ord1-
nary muscles cannot expel it at will
The eel is a very interesting fish to SSH
entists There is no group of fishes con-
corning the classification and history of
which there is so much doubt as the eel
family. An infinite number have been
described, but most of them are so badly
characterized or founded on individual
or trivial characters that the majority OF
ichthyologists will reject them. Some
twenty-five species of cells are known.
One cause for the multiplication of spec
les of eels is the partial and sometimes
total absence of bones. This phenome
non, which is explained by the fish ex-
perts as kind of ricketts,, has been no.
ticed in many specimens A specimen OF
medium sized eel, such as was killed by
the Thetis men, was once prepared, and
what appeared to be the bones OF the
skeleton remained in an entirely cart
ilaginous state Often the absence OF
bone can be determined by noticing the
extreme feasibility of the jaws. This
lack of bone formation, however, is not
incompatible with the healthy existence
of the fish, and neither does it prevent
the fish from attaining large size. The
fish which are homeless have fewer teeth
than their brethren who are favored with
bones The teeth of homeless cells become
hard by the deposit of calcaTeous 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
ascend rivers in vast numbers, and when
arrested by apparently impossible bar
riers they will leave the water and make
their way above the obstruction in en-
deavoring to reach the point at which
they aim. At the foot of Niagara Falls
which forms an absolutely impossible
barrier for eels hundreds of tons of these
young fish have been seen in the spring
months. Many observations of curious
interest have been made of the efforts of
Young cells to ascend fresh water streams
They have been known to climb steep
ascent twenty feet above water. There
was one remarkable case where young
cells passed from one stream to another
by means of tree which stood between
the waterways. the branches of Which
dipped into the lower stream. Ascending
these branches the cells squirmed across
to the branches oyerhanging the upper
strsam on the other side of the tree and
dropped into the water.
In Germany mature eels, 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
archives it is noted that "ee!s have been
caught upon dry land by the use of the
plow, for the peasants, on warm nights
when the cells are in search of peas, to-
wards morning, just before dawn, make
earrows with the pillow between the cells
and the water, and these are the nets in
which the cells are caught, Since the eel
moves with ease only upon the grass its
return ito the water is cut off by the soil
which has been thrown up. The peasants
consider it as a sign of approaching
stormy weather when the els come out of
the water upon dry land" AS this won
derful statement is an official report from
the Prus sian archives it is worthy of no.
ti0e. Up to a century ago no man knew
fer cert ainty from whence cells came.
Ene ancients believed that cells were gen
GRATED from slime, dew, horsehair, old
eelskins Or snakeskins For centuries
it was a question whether cells were pro-
duced by a female eel or by that of some
other species of fish, and, also, whether
the eel was an egg-laying animal or
whether it produced its young alive.
Aristotle believed that eels originated
from eel slime. This opinion was held
by Pliny, Athenaesus, Rondelet, Gessner.
Others believed that intestinal worms
found in mature cells were young cells,
which were to be born alive. Tt was not
until 1907 that eel eggs were discovered.
And not until 1873 did naturalists dis
cover male eel. Even now some scien-
fists hold that at first young eels are of
undifferentia ted sex and that t6ey have
the tendency under the influence of
fresh water to become females, while salt
water tends to develop male characters.
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