SCRAPS OF NATURAL HISTORY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14644, 19 April 1913, Page 2

SCRAPS OF NATURAL HISTORY.

(By Canterbury.)

(specially written fob "the press. ; I THE MIGRATION OF EELS. ! s LXXI. Though the manners and customs oi "Tuna, the eel," have been a favourite for the speculations of natur.alists from tho curliest ages, tliey art ,lill uncertain to tho present hour: not Jill of us believe that eels wil travel overland, and even the fact oi an annual migration to the sea is nol yot accepted as a thing beyond al 1 'loubt. 1 am trying to collect somt information about this matter, am: i vhould be glad of any help; perhaps ; Mr Davenport, who wrote mo those in--1 .cresting letters upon the ways ol rooks; and possibly Mr Peter Trolove, may have noted the progress of such ar event. In some of our South Canterburj -treams, a migration occurs, usuallj during the last weeks of March, but ihis year apparently it has been tielaved* until tho second week in April, ijn April SJth eels were descending the Kakatiu river, passing by dozens over the ford above the old lime kiln at Kakahu bush. Lpwards from tho footliridge is a shallow sluggish pool, more than a hundred yards in length, and all down the centre swam a close procession, proceeding steadily, until its order was broken on the gravelly ripplu at tho crossing. Here, tho current in only a few inches in depth, and eels went 'splashing sideways or edgeways, often half-length out of water, their silvery underside showing plainly as they stranded tor a second on tho stones. It was fairly evident that all were of the "silvery" variety—or sex— for no single yellow-coloured eel was distinguished "among tho hundreds which passed. In most 'natters of sport or natural history, it is customary to regard tho decision oi "Tho Field" as final, almost as wo receive tho will of tho House of Lords in a law-suit, and recently a correspondent of that paper .stated as a fact that all eels possessing a silvery underside were females, and golden-coloured eels wero of tho opposite sex. Now, I pay due regard to accepted oracles, and the writer of that article is n dear friend of mine, I and own brother to an editor of ''Tho I Field" ; also I fled from an angry bull in company with the wife of "The Field's"' angling editor, and bore a principal part in the last stages of our disordered progress through a saving Orai'i fence but yet I am not convinced. For instance, I have caught hundredsof eels in the Swyncombe Lake at Kaikoura, and every ono of them was of a deep, golden colour underneath, and also they wero by no means desirable as daily food; for in the times when thc-Jato Mr A. S. Collins gave shelter to all-comers at Mount • Fyffe, »t least a score partook of ai certain huge eel-pie, and nineteen "%uf--1 fered severely in consequence. Here, may 1 digress for a moment; is it a good idea to keep a diary, or is it not? At Mount Fyffe the "Master" kept a strictly written log of the day's events, and after he had retired to Jiis room, as usual, punctually at nine o'clock, it was an ordinary custom for the wickedest members and prospective members of his fqinily to repair to the library, where the log was always open upon tho table, "and sco what father has written about us to-day." It was very natural tTiat occasionally wo should feel anxious, and sometimes we found a record of doings which wo wished wore unobserved. That old-time diary, written according to "Hansard" by the "ci-devant Leader of tho Opposition and owner of all he could see" is treasured for future years, but in it mention is made of that eel-pie; "aw eel-pio dinner, vast in dimensions, and very evil in effect." By the way, that is exactly my own estimate , ot yellow-coloured eels. On the other hand, I Jiave caught hundreds in tho Huangarua river, in the Wairarapa, and all were silvery underneath, and always they seemed preferable to "'grilled chops" at breakfast. In that river we never caught Ift golden-coloured eel, and it is dimJ cult to imagine that the opposite sexes should be confined to different waters, i therefore in this exceptional gtatemont j "Tho Field. is not. as usual, quite i correct. As a matter of course, I collected evidence to oppose that statement, and despatched it by a " 'Frisco Mail." But after the three months' interval imposed by "return post ,, from j New Zealand, it is exactly sq much less likely to carry weight. AYe now return to the subject of this note, the migration of eels, and record an additional instance of its occurrence in another Canterbury stream, the Hao to Moana. Here, in this present year, the eels went seawards on April 11th, which is later by nearly a month than the dates I have previously. Of the migration in 1909-10 I could not obtain a record,, but in 1908 it happened on March 18th, in 1911 on March 12th, and last year on March 22nd. In tho present year, 1913, .1 have the testimony of three witnesses of the migration - on April who. apparently, made good usa of their opportunities. Tho scene is described to mc. "We were taking a dray across the river, and the water was thick with eels. Dick ran on ahead and got some big hooks at X's piacc—do let us hope they wero not there for tho convenience of trout— and we tied them on to sticks. Then, in less than an hour, we gaffed out a sack full of eels; and the biggest weighed nearly seven pounds. You could stand in the water and they took no notice of you. and you had only to strike tho biggest as they came by." So much for the migration of eels in the Hae IV Moana, and it is a fact to be deplored, that more people were not upon the sceno to make equal use of the opportunity ; for trout have no more deadly enemy than the aforesaid eel. " j Another mystery in the lifp of '"Tuna." is this: Do they return after migrating to tho Mr \Y. J. Fowler says:—"Ono day I was passing a slugeish stream about three miles from Tiinaru, and I saw a number of men and boys standing along the banks, so I tied up my horse and went to sco what they were doing. They were catching eels, which were passing down in shoals, or to be more correct, in a continuous stream. I borrowed a largo gaff and a companion and myself qu'ckly filled a large corn-sack with : them. There were no monsters in tho' crowd, but a good many weighed seven or eight pounds each. * After this migration to the sea. none of these big eels ever return to fresh water; so it was lucky that we found them on their way." Elsewhere it has been stated ; that they do not return, but among' the rest, this fact is not yet certain. A ■ few years ago, I think" during the • mo-nth of December, some anglers were ' fishmc: from the shingle-bank at tho mouth of the Opihi. when they saw a long column of eels coming in from the sea. These travelled up-stream, closo' to the bank, almost indifferent to any • hostile demonstrations, and it was' merely necessary to jag a minnow ; through the throng to capture one or j more at each cast. I can very easily ; recall the names of those who particf-i pated in this curious form of sport, and as divers of their captures weighed up to three pounds each, it apparently is evident that eels do return after migration.