THE EEL-FARE.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1926, Page 4

THE EEL-FARE.

ONE OF NATURE’S STRANGEST FREAKS. It is the time of year when the At-lantic-born eels arc migrating, in their myriads, towards our shores (says -.John ’o London’s Meekly,’ ot .January 23). They will now be following the Gulf Stream, and in about a month’s time the vanguard will be striking our river estuaries and heading up-stream, presenting us with the amazing phenomenon known as the “eel-fare.” Though very small, about three inches long, they arc now putting on the mature cel's form : ceasing to be the transparent. ribbon-like creatures known as glass-cels, and looking like stout darning needles. The scientists

tell us that during this transformation they fast for about a year, subsisting by tlie absorption of their own reserves. an amazing procession. Anyone who has seen the eel-faro on an English stream will agree that it is one of the strangest sights of our natural history. When watching it one day, as it passed up a Devon stream, an old eelspearer assured the writer that there could not lie fewer than twenty thousand elvers passing us in a minute. They went by in seemingly endless procession, hugging the river banks. The old man said they made best progress when the sun was shilling, and would sink to the mud at night or when the sun was clouded. The sunlight seemed to act as a spur, though the grown ell is a nocturnal creature that lies low in the river’s mud by day. The cel-spea rcr said that the elvers make a dainty dish when converted into baked takes. ladder of the dead. The most amazing sight is to watch them negotiating a flood-gate, or lore jug a passage up the sides ol a water ! f;|j'|. Many % l,K ’ "' ll . v i or P er ‘ Imps do nc>t actually tall, hut cling to H„. highest point reached by then dyiim efforts; those following them nmuiH by the ladder of the dead. Nothing 'but death will stop them when once they start their passage upstream. If need be, they can journey overland, since their gills allow them to survive for hours out of water. Following the eel-fare comes a host .ot hungry fishers: kingfishers that dive among them, taking deadly toll, coot and moorhen, and the ever-liinigrv heron. Those that survive and surmount all obstacles in their dauntless zeal will make themselves at home in our rivers perhaps lor several years, until mature, when they are. known as silver-eels. The silvery coats are their wedding garments. Ihe day comes when the deeps of the Atlantic call again, and they head away lor their breeding grounds in the deep sea, there to spawn, and then—the scientists say—to give up the ghost. It is natural that country folk should cling to all kinds of legends

about cels—and call them “waterserpents.” Some of tho early naturalists taught that they wore horn ol horsehairs dropped into the water: others that they were separated from

their parents’ bodies by being rubbed olf against rocks; or that they sprang from .May-dew. No fable surpasses the wonder of the true story, if we know it aright : the story of one of Nature’s strangest freaks. What has long been called “ the mystery of the eel ” still passes our comprehension.

A great line of Ladies Silk Hose usually 3s lid to he cleared at 2s lid at McKay’s sale.—-Advt.