S36 CRITICAL NOTICKS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



**The mode by which young Eels are produced appears to have long been 

 a subject of inquiry, and the notions of the ancients as well as of some of the 

 moderns were numerous and fanciful. Aristotle believed that they sprang 

 from the mud; Pliny, from fragments which were separated from their 

 bodies by rubbing against rocks ; others supposed that they proceeded from 

 the carcases of animals ; Helmont believea that they came from May -dew, 

 and might be obtained by the following process: — 'Cut up two turfs covered 

 with May-dew, and lay one upon the other, the grassy sides inwards, and 

 thus expose them to the heat of the sun ; in a few hours there will spring 

 from them an infinite quantity of Eels.' Horse-hair from the tail of a 

 stallion, when deposited in water, was formerly believed to be a never-failing 

 source of a supply of young Eels. It was long considered certain that they 

 were viviparous : this belief had its origin probably in the numerous worms 

 that are frequently to be found in various parts of the bodies of the Eels, 

 sometimes in the serous cavities, at others in the intestinal canal. Rudolj)hi 

 has enumerated eight different species of entozoa common to fresh-water 

 Eels. The enormous number of young known to be produced by Eels is a 

 good negative proof that they are oviparous; viviparous fishes producing, on 

 the contrary, but few young at a time, and these too of considerable size when 

 first excluded. Having devoted time and attention to the close examination 

 of numbers of Eels for many months in succession, the further details of 

 which will be found in Mr. Jesse's second series of Gleanings in Natural 

 History, I need only here repeat my belief that Eels are oviparous, produc- 

 ing their young like other true bony fishes.* * * 



'* There is no doubt that Eels occasionally quit the water, and when grass 

 meadows are wet from dew, or other causes, travel during the night over the 

 moist surface in search of frogs and other suitable food, or to change their 

 situation. Some ponds continually produce Eels, though the owners of these 



f)onds are most desirous of keeping the water free from Eels, from a know- 

 edge of their destructive habits towards the spawn and fry of other fishes. 

 Other ponds into which Eels have been constantly introduced are obnoxious 

 to them from some quality in the water; and they are known to leave such 

 places during the night, and have been found on their passage to other re- 

 treats. Dr. Hastings, in his Illustrations of the Natural History of Worces- 

 tershire, says at page 134: 'I will here mention a curious confirmation of the 

 opinion in favour of the overland migration of Eels. A relative of the late 

 Mr. Perrott was out in his park with his keeper near a large piece of water 

 on a very beautiful evening, when the keeper drew his attention to a fine 

 Eel quietly ascending the bank of the pt)ol, and with an undulating motion 

 making its way through the long grass : on further observation he perceived 

 a considerable number of Eels quietly proceeding to a range of stews, nearly 

 the distance of a quarter of a mile from the large piece of water from whence 

 they started. The stews were supplied by a rapid brook, and in all probabi- 

 lity the instinct of the fish led them in that direction as a means of finding 

 their way to some large river from whence their ultimate destination, the sea, 

 might be obtained. This circumstance took place at Sandford Park, near 

 Enstone.' • « « 



" The Eel is a voracious feeder during certain months of the year. In 

 winter the stomachs of those which I examined were empty: by the middle 

 of March I found the stomachs of others distended with the larvae of various 

 insects, and the bones of small fishes. Thev are known to consume a large 

 quantity of spawn and will attack large Carp, seizing them by the fins, 

 though without the power of doing them further injury. Occasionally they 

 eat vegetable substances, and have been seen swimming about the surface 

 of water, cropping the leaves of small aquatic plants. By means of a long 

 and capacious air-bladder. Eels rise to various elevations in the water with 

 great ease, and sometimes swim very high even in deep water. When 

 Whitebait-fishing in the Thames, I once caught an Eel in the net in twenty - 

 six feet depth of^water, though the Whitebait-net does not dip more than 

 about three feet below the surface. 



