316 THE FAMILY OF EELS. 



river, -where they kept together; but they have been met with 

 as well in January as in June; and after a confinement of a 

 few weeks in a tank there has not been an approach to a 

 change in the appearance. In one instance a sketch shewed 

 the snout remarkably protruded and sharp, and in another 

 decidedly blunt. 



But in addition to this early and regular tendency to 

 migration, these fish are also occasionally disposed to a casual 

 wandering; which is sometimes caused by the wish to escape 

 from the confined limits of a pool, to which a vagrant pro- 

 pensity has carried them, or in which they have been placed; 

 and where the water has become muddled or is nauseous. 

 Thus an Eel of considerable size was placed in a muddy pool 

 in a dry season; and soon afterwards, having examined the 

 border in all directions, it left the water and passed over the 

 dry ground to a neighbouring river. AVlien also, in the course 

 of examination into the structure and habits of these fish, 

 examples were placed in vessels of pure water, which was kept 

 a few inches below the brim, it was observed in every case 

 that they soon made their escape, which was always effected 

 in the night. In some instances these runaways were discovered 

 in the street, as they were on their way to the river, and 

 brought back; but they remained no longer than until the 

 return of darkness; and these escajDcs were through passages 

 not easily j)erceived, or to be guarded. 



The manner in which these fish manage to pass over the 

 edge of the vessel in which they have been confined, is not 

 less characteristic than is the structure and facility of action 

 of the organ by which it is accomplished, in which respect, 

 as we shall see, they much resemble the Conger. Of the 

 larger number of vertebrae with which they are furnished, 

 amounting, according to Lacepede, to a hundred and sixteen, 

 those nearest the tail are so formed as to allow of great flexibility; 

 by which, as may be familiarly noticed, these little creatures, 

 when meddled with, are in the habit of tying this extremity 

 into a knot; but the sensibility of the part in feeling, and 

 that of a peculiar kind, is also great; and it is supported by 

 a special organization of which by and by there will be given 

 a more particular description. It is by this combination of 

 structure that these fish are able, first, to ascertain the nature 



