CORRESPONDENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1927, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

THE HABITS OF EELS. Sir,--A rather amusing article under the heading “Life Story of Eels,” appeared in your paper of the llinst. Their life history is no doubt wonderful. To study it is interesting, yet the whole thing is wrapped in mystery. When about six years of age the female eels have a desire to travel somewhere, end although they do not know It they are preparing for egg laying. They cease to take food, and the shape of the head alters by becoming smaller. Then down the rivers they go in swarms into the Pacific somewhere, never to return and to have their spawn possibly a thousand miles out. Nobody lias yet seen the eggs, yet at some great depth the eggs are hatched, and the young jmmdiately start off back to the respective places of their male parents. Until three years of age, the young eels, which are about three-inches long, resemble a flounder in shape, and do not go up the rivers. They then lose their appetite; the body changes by becoming narrower, and. then they are ready to go up the rivers. All this seems hardly possible, and to believe it, I am sure most natural thinking people would choke even if a pinch of salt were added, yet your correspondent declares it so. With others I can name several places where we hare found three to six eels a few inches long together in nests, besides, with female eels I cannot find anything to indicate that they spawn at all. I wonder if your correspondent has just merely read and not studied for himself? How did he conclude that, say, eels born in the Atlantic in the same locality and travelling some distance together do not get mixed up. and go to wrong places, say, to rivers flowing into the Mediterranean, North Sea or the North American Rivers? I am, etc., New Plymouth Dec, 30. WIDE-AWAKE. A MISLEADING ANNOUNCEMENT. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Being a visitor to your lovely little town, I noticed an advertisement on the trams advertising your hot sea baths, so I thought I would try them, but was told by the caretaker that the boiler had burst. Bad management somewhere. Other boilers don’t burst, unless neglected.—l am, etc., F. ROBINSON. NEW PLYMOUTH STREETS. To the Editor.) ®‘ r > —As a visitor over the holiday season to your town, it has been my pleasure to stay at Glen Almond, or, rather, a pleasure it would have been but for the approach to this part of the borough from Devon Street, the effort of any lady to negotiate the boulders, rocks and gullies of Belt Road in light summer shoes being almost impossible. I assume the very fine residences which have been, and are about to be, erected in Glen Almond have increased the rateable value of this suburb, and surely in common fairness to those who have invested a part of their capital to make a nice home for themselves, the council should see that at least a decent approach be given them to their properties. —I am, etc., VISITOR,