232 LONGEVITY OF FISHES. 



have been reared and kept in a state of bondage that correct 

 observations could have been made as to tlieir age. Buffon re- 

 lates that some carps were bred in the ditches of Port Chartrain, 

 and were known to be above 150 years old; and those in the 

 Royal Gardens of Charlottenberg, in Prussia, are said to have had 

 their heads covered with moss from age. 



At Manheim the skeleton of a pike is preserved, 19 feet in length, 

 which is said to have weighed, when alive, 350 lbs ; it was caught 

 at Kayserlautern, in 1497; and a Greek inscription on a brass 

 ring, inserted at the gills, announced that it had been put into the 

 pond by the Emperor Frederick IL, namely, 267 years before it 

 was caught. We are not however, to infer from these examples, 

 that all fishes are equally long lived. The ephemeral fly lives 

 but a day, the Elephant may live a century ; some fishes may 

 live but a very limited period, and no doubt different species may 

 be doomed to die at different ages. 



Eels are said to live only 12 or 15 years, but we know not on 

 what grounds this assertion may be founded. Facts relative to 

 the different species of fishes should be collected and recorded, 

 and from a sufficient number of these, conclusions might be drawn. 

 Eels migrate from ponds becoming dry, to others in the neigh- 

 bourliood, more plentifully supplied with water : they possess 

 the power of locomotion on dry land, and have been seen to 

 ascend the vertical surface of a canal lock, on their way to the 

 water above them. An eel, two feet in length, was lately found, 

 alive and in good condition, in an iron tank, on board the Cap- 

 tivity, convict hulk, at Devonport. This vessel is moored to the 

 jetty, in the Dockyard, and had, for 8 or 10 years, several iron 

 tanks stowed in her hold, all communicating with each other by 

 means of small pipes; in the lowest tank, a pump was fixed to 

 raise thp water for the use of the prisoners ; and when this was 

 nearly empty, the whole were again filled by means of a leather 

 hose, one end of which was fixed to a fire cock in the yard, the 

 other end leading into the ship. 



A very small eel, or else the spawn of an eel, must have been 

 conveyed from the Leat, through the cast iron pipes, into the 

 Dockyard, through the leathern hose into the convict ship, and 

 finally, from tank to tank into the last and lowest dungeon of 

 that celebrated prison ship; here it remained in utter darkness, 

 fed and thrived on the water and the animalculae contained in it. 

 The Captivity has held captive many a victim of ambition, crime? 

 or misfortune: the first and greatest was the Emperor Napoleon, 



