seventh day.] GEN ERATION OF EELS. 195 



forward on the subject j but tell us what you think 

 upon it. 



HAL. — I will tell you all I know, which is not much. 

 This is certain, that there are two migrations of eels, 

 — one up and one down rivers, one from and the 

 other to the sea ; the first in spring and summer, the 

 second in autumn or early winter. The first, of very 

 small eels, which are sometimes not more than two or 

 two and a half inches long ; the second, of large eels, 

 which sometimes are three or four feet long, and 

 weigh from 10 to 15, or even 201bs. There is great 

 reason to believe, that all eels found in fresh water 

 are the results of the first migration ; they appear in 

 millions in April and May, and sometimes continue 

 to rise as late even as July and the beginning of 

 August. I remember this was the case in Ireland, in 

 1823. It had been a cold backward summer, and 

 when I was at Ballyshannon, about the end of July, 

 the mouth of the river, which had been in flood all 

 this month, under the fall, was blackened by millions 

 of little eels, about as long as the finger, which were 

 constantly urging their way up the moist rocks by 

 the side of the fall. Thousands died, but their bodies 

 remaining moist, served as the ladder for others to 

 make their way ; and I saw some ascending even per- 

 pendicular stones, making their road through wet moss, 



or adhering to some eels, that had died in the attempt. 



o2 



