THE LARGEST FRESHWATER EEL. 83 



pond of Dutford Mill, and twenty-one eels were taken 

 out of the eel-trap at the same place, whose united 

 weight amounted to 84lbs., and one of the eels was not 

 6oz. in weight. 



The largest fresh-water eel I ever examined and cast 

 was a magnificent specimen sent in May, 1878, by Mr. 

 John Welch, eel salesmen, Billingsgate. It measured 

 4ft. 4in. in length, lOin. round and weighed just upon 

 lOlbs. It w^as taken in the river Mole. 



STRUCTURAL BEAUTIES OF THE EEL. 



I am happy to find that among anglers there is gradu- 

 ally spreading a desire to know much more of the actual 

 structure and physiology of fishes than heretofore, and 

 it always gives me great pleasure, when I have an oppor- 

 tunity, of pointing out any structural peculiarity which 

 exemplifies Paley's argument of the wonderful adapta- 

 tion of means to ends. In the common eel we have an 

 excellent example of this. The eel, as is well known, 

 will live a long time out of water. This habit is of the 

 greatest service to him, as sometimes it is necessary for 

 him to migrate from place to place by an overland route. 

 To enable him to live out of the water the eel has a 

 most elaborate yet simple form of mechanism, by means 

 of which he is enabled to keep his gills moist even 

 though he is not in the w\ater. It will be observed 

 that immediately, or if not very soon after, an eel is 

 taken out of the water, two great swellings will take 

 place each side of the head, and that if the eel is placed 

 back in the water this swelling will immediately dis- 

 appear. Let us now take a dead eel; we shall, find 

 close to the pectoral fins a slit in the skin w^hich acts 

 as a valve. If we take a probe and pass it through 



