Where Eels Breed.
The public just leams (says a London paper) that it did not know where eels bred, but it seems that the problem has long puzzled biologists. Danish marine investigators have now completed investigations proving that so far as the European eel population is concerned, the creatures spawn at the depth of 550 fathoms in the Atlantic Ocean contiguous to the British Isles and south-west Europe. From innumerable eggs there appear tiny larva 1 called leptocephali, which are transparent, jellylike, and flat, having something of the contour of the tailless herring. It is not known how long the eggs take to develop the leptocephali, hut the hitter occupy six months in
The elvers then migrate in countless swarms to flic shores of Western Europe, travelling in columns sometimes several yards wide and miles long. Nothing stops their progress, If they encounter a ship thei separate to (he right and left and rejoin in the vessel’s wake. They even ascend small waterfalls, penetrate streams and wriggle over swampy grounds into ponds and ditches.
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Bibliographic details
Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 38, 7 May 1907, Page 7
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174Where Eels Breed. Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 38, 7 May 1907, Page 7
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