One of the most curious of all living creatures is the long, slippery, whiplike member of the fish family called the eel.

If it were possible to identify one of the species and follow it in its travels, it would be found at different times swimming across hundreds of miles of ocean, ascending rivers, and even wriggling through wet grass on land toward the place where its instinct tells it there is a pond rich in food.

Every eel caught in America or Europe, even from streams far inland, was born from one of possibly 20,000,000 eggs laid by its mother at a depth of 180 to 275 meters in a certain area of the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda!

The common eel, brownish-black in color, has a smooth skin, and is usually without scales, or with embedded ones. It is only recently that people have learned the origin of young eels, or elvers. Now it is known that they first appear as peculiar, transparent forms floating near the surface of the ocean. After a certain length of time these forms gradually shrink and take on the definite outline of the adult eel. Then the elvers of a certain section of this breeding zone swim by millions toward Europe.

But they do not enter the fresh water of European rivers until they have reached their third year. The elvers of the other section of the breeding zone swim toward America and, when one year old, enter fresh water, ascending all American streams from the St.Lawrengg River to the Gulf of Mexico.

After a life of four to twelve years in fresh water, during which they reach an average length of 60 to 90 meters, the adults descend the rivers, never to return. They swim back to Bermuda, breed in the depths, and die!

Eels are caught as they go downstream from July to the end of October-sometimes later in the year-on their way to Bermuda. The annual catch of eels for market along the Atlantic coast is more than 900,000 kilograms.