REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 45 



The popular superstition, however, can readily be excused when 

 we find no less an authority than Doctor Boulenger, of the British 

 Museum, writing, in 1904,* "[eels] can live for many hours out of the 

 water and are often met with at night creeping through the grass of 

 meadows from one pond or stream to another." 



Since the time of Aristotle the natural history of the eel has been a 

 prolific source of conjecture and discussion. Its breeding habits and 

 the origin of the young seem particularly mysterious, since no one 

 had ever been able to find either the eggs or the reproductive organs 

 of either sex. Many strange fables and theories have attempted to 

 explain these things. The Greeks, after the custom of their day, 

 which was to attribute to Zeus all children whose paternity was 

 doubtful, were accustomed to refer to Jupiter as the progenitor 

 of the eel. Aristotle believed that eels, in common with other 

 lower forms, arose spontaneously. This explanation passed current 

 throughout the learned world all through the Middle Ages. The 

 explanation which has been popularly very commonly accepted is 

 that young eels are born alive, either from the adult eel itself or from 

 some other animal. The parasitic worms which are found in the 

 intestines and viscera of most fishes have probably been the source 

 of this latter opinion. In Sardinia, however, the fishermen cling to 

 the belief that a certain water beetle, in which they find the hair 

 worm, Gordius, is the " mother of eels." A relic of this ancient idea 

 has even come down to us, since the country boy of the present day 

 is often told that horse hairs falling into the water turn into snakes 

 and eels. This superstition is based on the presence in these waters 

 of certain aquatic worms which are much elongated and smooth like 

 the eel. It is not an uncommon belief among New England fisher- 

 men that eels come from clams and vice versa. The mysterious 

 crystalline style of the clam is probably responsible for this absurd- 

 ity. One fisherman was accustomed to predict abundance or scarci- 

 ty of clams for the coming season by observing the number of small 

 eels which he saw along the shore in the spring. 



* See Cambridge Natural History, Vol. VII, page 603. 



