EELS AND THEIR YOUNG. 255 



ence by saying that " most fish develop a shovel-nose when they are 

 working up-stream." If this were the case, an eel would have a 

 shovel-nose in the spring and a sharp nose in the autumn ! Such a 

 capability of altering his features would be certainly open to envy ; 

 but, unfortunately for this theory, the structure of the two fish is 

 materially different, and the single fact that the shovel or broad-nosed 

 eel has one hundred and fifteen vertebrae, while his sharp-nosed rela- 

 tive only possesses one hundred and thirteen is sufficient to prove the 

 fallacy of the idea that the two fish are identical. 



Of fresh-water eels as apart from their mighty cousin the conger, 

 there are three distinct kinds the sharp-nosed eel, the broad-nosed or 

 frog-mouthed eel, and the snig. Of these three, the sharp-nosed eel 

 is both the largest fish and the best eating, though some prefer the 

 snig-eel as having a superior flavor. The snig, however, in spite of 

 its excellence, has not the same value as the sharp-nosed eel ; for it 

 seldom, if ever, attains more than half a pound in weight. The sharp- 

 nosed eel, on the contrary, attains an enormous size. One on record 

 that was taken in the Medway, not far from Rochester, weighed 

 thirty-four pounds, measured six feet in length, and had a girth of 

 twenty-five inches. Another eel, taken in Kent, weighed forty pounds 

 and measured five feet nine inches. Yarrell speaks of having seen at 

 Cambridge the preserved skins of two which had weighed together 

 fifty pounds ; the heaviest twenty-seven pounds, the other twenty-three 

 pounds. But these instances, though not to be regarded as apocry- 

 phal, are still very exceptional ; and a very fair average weight for 

 sharp-nosed eels is six pounds. Eels of even ten pounds weight are 

 not common, and Mr. Frank Buckland speaks of one of that size as 

 being the largest he had ever seen. From time immemorial eels have 

 always been much esteemed by epicures, more perhaps in ancient days 

 than they are now. Aristotle and Aristophanes both mention eels in 

 terms of high praise ; indeed, the former may be considered to have 

 known more about eels than the contemporary we have already re- 

 ferred to, for he recognized at least two distinct species of eels. By 

 the Egyptians eels were regarded with great abhorrence, as the embodi- 

 ment of an evil demon ; but other nations did not share the prejudice, 

 for the Boeotians, who were celebrated for their eels, used them as 

 sacred offerings. Misson, in his " Travels," tells of a vow made by 

 the inhabitants of Terracina, a seaport of Italy, when besieged by the 

 Turks. They vowed to offer twenty thousand eels a year to St. 

 Benedict if he would deliver them from their peril. Whether a fond 

 memory of stewed eels touched the saint we do not know, but the siege 

 was raised, and the Benedictine monks got their eels every year from 

 the virtuous and grateful inhabitants. The Venerable Bede mentions 

 the eel-fisheries of Britain in his " History of the Anglo-Saxon Church," 

 and an instance is quoted of the magnificence of the famous Arch- 

 bishop Thomas a Becket that, when he traveled in France, "he ex- 



