CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 335 



and its similarity to snakes has even been repeated by those who, from the 

 advantages of education, and their acquirements in natural history, might 

 have been supposed capable of drawing more accurate conclusions. There is 

 but little similarity in the snake and the Eel except in the external form of 

 the body : the important internal organs of the two animals, and the charac- 

 ter of the skeleton, are most decidedly different. 



" Eels are in reality a valuable description of fish : their flesh is excellent 

 as food; they are very numerous, very prolific, and are found in almost 

 every part of the world. The various species are hardy, tenacious of life, 

 and very easily preserved. In this country they inhabit almost all our 

 rivers, lakes, and ponds; they are in great esteem for the table, and the con- 

 sumption in our large cities is very considerable. The London market is 

 principally supplied' from Holland by Dutch fishermen. There are two 

 companies in Holland, having five vessels each: their vessels are built with 

 a capacious well, in which large quantities of Eels are preserved alive till 

 wanted. One or more of these vessels may be constantly seen lying off* 

 Billingsgate ; the others go to Holland for fresh supplies, each bringing a 

 cargo of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds' weight of live Eels, for which the Dutch 

 merchant pays a duty of 13/. per cargo for his permission to sell. 



Eels are not only numerous, but they are also in great request, in many 

 other countries. Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches, vol ii., page 286, says : 

 ' In Otaheite, Eels are great favourites, and are tamed and fed until they 

 attain an enormous size. These pets are kept in large holes, two or three 

 feet deep, partially filled with water. On the sides of these pits they gener- 

 ally remained, excepting when called by the person who fed them. I have 

 been several times with the young chief, when he has sat down by the side 

 of the hole, and, by giving a shrill sort of whistle, has brought out an enor- 

 mous Eel, which has moved about the surface of the water, and eaten with 

 confidence out of its master's hand.' 



" 'Most of the writers on the habits of the Eel have described them as 

 making two migrations in each year: one in the autumn <o the sea; the 

 other in spring, or at the beginning of summer, from the sea. The autumn 

 migration is performed by adult Eels, and is believed to be for the purpose 

 of depositing their spawn ; it is also said that these parent fish never return 

 up the rivers. The spring migration is commonly supposed to be confined 

 to very small Eels, not more than three inches in length, and in reference 

 to the fry alone, it is too well known, and too often recorded, to be a matter 

 of doubt. The passage of countless hundreds of young Eels has been seen 

 and described as occurring in the Thames,* the Severn, the Parrett, the Dee, 

 and the Ban. I am, however, of opinion, that the passage of adult Eels 

 to the sea, or rather to the brackish water of the estuary, is an exercise of 

 choice, and not a matter of necessity ; and that the parent Eels return up 

 the river as well as the fry.' * « • 



"During the cold months of the year Eels remain imbeded in mud; and 

 large quantities are frequently taken by Eel-spears in the soft soils of har- 

 bours and banks of rivers, from which the tide recedes, and leaves the sur- 

 face exposed for several hours every day. The Eels bury themselves twelve 

 or sixteen inches deep, near the edge of the navigable channel, and generally 

 near some of the many land-drains, the water of which continues to run in 

 its course over the mud into the channel during the whole time the tide is 

 out. In Somersetshire the people know how to find the holes in the banks 

 of rivers in which Eels are laid up, by the hoar-frost not lying over them as 

 it does elsewhere, and dig them out in heaps. The practice of searching for 

 Eels in mud in cold weather is not confined to this country ; Dr. Mitchill, 

 in his paper on the fishes of New York, published in the Transactions of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society of that city, says, *In the winter Eels lie 

 concealed in the mud, and are taken in great numbers by spears.' • » * 



" * See an excellent account by Dr. William Roots, of Kingston, published in the second 

 series of Gleanings iu Natural History, by Edward Jesse, Esq. p. 50. 



