WHERE DO EELS SPAWN?

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 259, 2 August 1928, Page 5

WHERE DO EELS SPAWN?

ONE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION.

“For years I have read- in the I’ress articles on the subject. ‘ Where .do eels Spawn?’ and the following facts may throw some light on the subject.” writes W. I>. B. Murray, I’almerston. North. "In 1870, I was surveying a large block of land for settlement in the Gli-nkenieh, Tapamii, district in Otago. Through a portion of the block flowed the Waikolkoi stream, a branch of the. Tomaliaka River. The source and head of the stream was a large swamp, say, from four to five miles long, and from a quarter to half a mile wide. "I was camped on the I .banks of the swamp for months. The upper mile or so of the swamp was covered by a tangled mat of vegetation from a foot, to two feet thick, underneath being water from’eight to ten feet deep: a kind of covered lake. Scattered over this portion here and there, were clear stagnant uncovered portions of water, and when the tun was shining. I have seen near the surface in these pools, hundreds, maybe'thousands of young eels from an inch to three Inches long swimming about: and undoubtedly these voting eels'never came from the . sea. The idea is ridiculous, the sea being fifty miles an ay as the crow flics. The swamp contained thousands of eels, all sizes up to throe and four feel'■ in ‘ length. After a spoil of heavy rain the swamp would overflow the adjacent land. and at night the eels would come out through the grass; in hundreds, and with a table-fork lashed on the ond of a stick you could spear a cartload if vou wanted them. “The swamp, -years after I was there, was drained bv a deep-channel taken up tiro centre, as' the- toll of shpep drowned or begged was considerable.”