540 SUPPLEMENT ON 



The fins of the eel are not very apparent, and its scales are 

 scarcely visible. The head is slender; the lower jaw ad- 

 vances in a point; the nostrils are projecting, and the eyes 

 covered with a semi-transparent membrane ; its lips and its 

 two lateral lines are furnished with a great number of open 

 glands, continually secreting an unctuous fluid, which makes 

 its skin appear as though it were varnished, and renders it so 

 slippery when the animal is taken into the hand. 



The organization of the eel presents many remarkable facts. 

 Its vertebrae are compressed, small, and so pliant as to permit 

 the animal to wind itself round in all directions. The very 

 short ribs which are attached to them form no impediment to 

 its movements. Numerous spines disseminated among the 

 divers fasciculi of muscles supply the strength which is want- 

 ing in the vertebras and ribs. 



Some experiments of Sept. Fontaines, related by Lacepede, 

 prove that the eels do not grow more than about eight inches 

 in length in the course of ten years ; but if their growth is 

 slow it takes place during a long series of years, for they can 

 live for a century, and longer. 



Agility, suppleness, size, and strength, are the inheritance 

 of the eel. Accordingly, we find that it swims with the 

 greatest facility; it can traverse, without the eye being able 

 to follow it, very considerable spaces. It sometimes issues 

 forth from the water, creeping upon the ground in the manner 

 of the serpents, either for the purpose of seeking new waters, 

 when those which it inhabited are dried up or corrupted, or 

 to catch worms and insects in the meadows, and even, as is 

 reported, to eat the peas which are newly sown, which it is 

 said to be passionately fond of. These courses do not take 

 place except during the night, a time when it has less risks 

 to run, and during which a dry and warm air cannot act upon 

 its organs. 



Lacepede has well observed that one of the great causes of 



