The Topeka state journal., 1913-06-06
EEL BATTLES FISH EXPERTS.
Strange Creature That Is at Home in
Either Depths of Sea or a River.

There are few things more aggra-
waiting to the scientists than to know
how thing must take place and yet
be unable to prove it, The eel still
battles the expert on fishes, although
another chapter in its life history has
just been written. In late report of
the great Michael Sars exploration of
the depths of the Atlantic four smaller
and younger stages of the eel young
are described and pictured than had
ever been seen before. But still no
egg-bearing common eel has yet been
netted, and no eel egg has yet been
found. The migrationS of the cells
or the eel-fare, as it is known in Eu-
rope-have been known for centuries,
but, the origin of the eel is yet un-
known, though its life history-espe-
cially with the new information-is
one of the most curious of all sea-and-
land creatures.
The eel, it must be pointed out, is
thoroughly liberal in it's tastes. He
will live for years in the abyssal
depths of the ocean, and, though
abyssal fish rarely come to the upper
water, he will spend the next few
years right at the surface of the sea-
For a while he will disport himself in
the warm waters of the Gulf stream,
then he will strike for colder currents.
Later he abandons the open sea and
decides to try castal waters, seeming
to enjoy the new experience. Then
he turns his attention to fresh water
and starts up the rivers, in some cases
having already travelled 5000 miles
The river attracts him for a while,
then the young eel finds still reaches
of water, or ascends tiny streams and
settles in fish-stocked ponds.
Nor is the young eel insistent in his
demand for water If the ground is
moist and the grass wet, an eel will
quite cheerfully make his way over
land, and in some places, such as the
valley of the Severn in England, for
two or three weeks at a time process
SiOnS eelS-milliOnS
millions-win swarm up the streams
and scatter to all the ponds at the
river source. After some years spent
in these fresh water ponds, the mem
ory-I use the word deliberately-of
the salt water seems to come back and,
coupled with some aged-old instinct of
spawning, the now full grown eel
takes up his journey overland again
reaches the river, swims straight out
to sea and is lost to the sight of those
who search for him. Where the adult
eels finally go as yet has not been
found; but they seem never to come
back.
The eel, moreover, is as generous
to himself in the shapes he uses as in
the place where he makes his home.
How he begins and is compelled to
repeat, we do not know, and it was
not until this last cruise that an eel
baby (they call him a leptochepalus)
as small as two inches in length was
ever found. He is then absolutely
of knife blade, and absolutely color
less except that the iris of the eye is
silvery.
Apparently he does not feed; or, if
he does, it is in such quantities and on
such microscopic life that growth is
extremely slow, finally reaching three
inches. Until quite recently these
transparent, flat fish were thought to
be a species by themselves. In the
late autumn the young eel changes his
shape, becoming more eellike and
actually reducing his length. This is
necessary, because during the change
he fasts, and the change is only one
third his former weight During this
period, lasting a year, he certainly has
taken no food. BY this time he is
recognizab BILE as glass-eel, though
still almost transparent; and when a
little darker and stronger. about the
size of a knitting needle in girth and
2 Y inches long, he starts with millions
of comrades on a 3,000-mile swim.
But the real eel babyhood is unknown.
though almost any day some dredge
from deepest ocean may reveal the |
York American.