1 82 EELS. 



As to the instinct and general intelligence of the Eel, I cannot regard M. Lacepede's 

 notions as much exaggerated. Eels are capable of domestication, and if their affection is of 

 the nature of cupboard love, the same is true of all other species of fish that have been 

 tamed: — "In Otaheite," says Ellis,* "Eels are 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 generally 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 enormous Eel, which has 

 moved about the surface of the water and eaten with confidence out of his master's hand." 



We ha\>e another account of some tame Eels given by Sir W. C. Trevelyan, of which 

 the following is the substance: — -"Some Eels had been kept for nine or ten years in a walled 

 garden at Craigo, the seat of David Carnegie, Esq. During the cold of winter they lay 

 torpid, unless on bright days, when they came out of their hiding-places ; but they would not 

 take food before the 26th. of April, and then they ate sparingly until the warm weather, when 

 they became quite unsatiable. When they were first put into the pond and had no food given 

 them they devoured one another. They generally kept quiet at the bottom of the pond, 

 except when any of the family went to look into it, when they invariably rose to the surface,- 

 sometimes for food, and at others merely to play with the hand, or take the fingers Into their 

 mouths." 



Eels have the power of living a long time out of the water, if the air is humid; this 

 they are enabled to do on account of the smallness of the gill aperture, the membranous 

 folds of which by closing the orifice when the Eel is out of the water prevent the desiccation 

 of the branchise. Sometimes in their peregrinations overland they are overtaken by the rays 

 of a warm sun, when they speedily die. They have been taken in gardens, on hooks baited 

 for birds ; and some authors have left it on record that they actually steal newly-sown peas ! 



Every sniggler knows that a sharp rap on the tail of an Eel is attended with satisfactory 

 results to himself and with unpleasant consequences to the fish, which is immediately 

 quieted by the operation. This, some say, is by reason of the injury done to the lymphatic 

 heart or caudal pulse, as before referred to.t Eels, as everybody knows, are extremely 

 tenacious of life. Yarrell states " that Eels exposed on the ground till frozen, then buried in 

 snow, and at the end of four days put into water, and so thawed slowly, discovered gradually 

 signs of life, and soon perfectly recovered." Such a power of endurance as this, however, 

 must be exceptional ; for, as a rule. Eels are not able to survive a hard frost unless they 

 are embedded in their mud-holes. It may also be satisfactory to know that the stories 

 which the shuddering cook can often tell of cut-up lengths of Eel jumping out of the 

 "frying-pan into the fire" have in them only an appearance of horror. After the head is 

 severed from the body, it is clear that there can be no sense of feeling properly so called; 

 the life-like signs exhibited are accounted for by the high degree of irritability of the mus- 

 cular fibre. Very curious stories have been told of the power of the Eel' to survive under 

 peculiar conditions.:!: 



Eels have many enemies : otters, polecats, rats, various water-birds, such as herons and 

 swans, occasionally make them their prey, not to mention the rapacious Pike, the Salmon, and 

 the Slob Trout, which are all very fond of elvers. The rats and polecats make their 

 attacks in the winter when the Eels are dormant. § 



* Pvlvncsiaii Riscarches, ii. p. zS6. 

 f But is it not more probable that the effect is due to concussion of the spine? The stoppage of the Ij-mphatic 

 heart could scarcely be followed by so immediate a result. 



\ Gesner says — " Phalacrocorax anguillas integras vorat, quod Anglus quidam nobis retulit; ille mox per intestina 

 elapsx, denuo devorantur, idque vel novies aliquando repetitur, prius quam debilitata tandem retincatur." — De Aqual., 

 p. 45, D. And sec Prose Haliailics, p. 389. 



§ See The Angler NaluralisI, p. 381. 



