2-1/2 in., while the perfectly-formed young eel is 2 in. long or a
little more.

The Italian naturalists have also satisfied themselves that certain
pelagic fish eggs originally described by Raffaele at Naples are the
eggs of _Muraenidae_, and that among them are the eggs of _Conger_ and
_Anguilla_. They believe that these eggs, although free in the water,
remain usually near the bottom at great depths, and that fertilization
takes place under similar conditions. No fish eggs of the kind to which
reference is here made have yet been obtained on the British coasts,
although conger and eels are so abundant there. Raffaele described and
figured the larva newly hatched from one of the eggs under
consideration, and it is evident that this larva is the earliest stage
of a Leptocephalus.

Although young eels, some of them more or less flat and transparent, are
common enough on the coasts of Great Britain and north-western Europe in
spring, neither eggs nor specimens of _Leptocephalus brevirostris_ have
yet been taken in the North Sea, English Channel or other shallow waters
in the neighbourhood of the British Islands, or in the Baltic. Marked
eels have been proved to migrate from the inmost part of the Baltic to
the Kattegat. Recently, however, search has been made for the larvae in
the more distant and deeper portions of the Atlantic Ocean. In May 1904
a true larval specimen was taken at the surface south-west of the Faeroe
Islands, and another was taken 40 m. north by west of Achill Head,
Ireland. In 1905 numbers were taken in deep water in the Atlantic. The
evidence at present available indicates that the spawning of mature eels
takes place beyond the 100 fathom line, and that the young eels which
reach the coast are already a year old. As eels, both young and old, are
able to live for a long time out of water and have the habit of
travelling at night over land in wet grass and in damp weather, there is
no difficulty in explaining their presence in wells, ponds or other
isolated bodies of fresh water at any distance from the sea.

See "The Eel Question," _Report U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries for
1879_ (Washington, 1882); J. T. Cunningham, "Reproduction and
Development of the Conger," _Journ. Mar. Biol. Assn._ vol. ii.; C. G.
J. Petersen, _Report Dan. Biol. Station_, v. (1894); G. B. Grassi,
_Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci._ vol. xxxix. (1897). (J. T. C.)

EFFENDI (a Turkish word, corrupted from the Gr. [Gree