260 MALACOP. APODES. EEL FAMILY. 



able to remain a longer time out of the water tliau 

 most other fishes, owing to the power they possess 

 of closing the aperture over the gills and thus pre- 

 venting the desiccation of the latter ; the mucous 

 secretion also keeps the body long moist. In con- 

 sequence of these provisions, they often voluntarily 

 leave the water, and travel over a considerable space 

 of land; sometimes, it would appear, in order to 

 obtain food, at other times for the purpose of 

 changing their abode. These migrations usually, 

 or always, take place in the night, when the absence 

 of the sun, and the frequent presence of dew, or 

 rain, prevent them suffering from the want of their 

 natural element. 



Being much in request, in most countries, for the 

 table, various modes are adopted for capturing Eels. 

 "When ascending rivers from the sea, which they do 

 at times in immense bodies (in 1832, it was calcu- 

 lated by two observers, that from sixteen to eighteen 

 hundred j)assed a given point in the Thames at 

 Kingston, in the space of one minute), numerous 

 plans are resorted to on purpose to intercept them. 

 The apparatus used in the Thames, called an Eel- 

 buck, consists of a number of wicker baskets of a 

 peculiar form supported on a wooden framework, 

 each basket having a large open end opposed to the 

 stream, and the interior so constructed that a fish 

 once entering cannot get out again. When imbedded 

 lU the mud, they are often taken by eel-spears ; and 

 at times dug out in heaps. Large quantities are 

 imported to Billingsgate from Holland, for which a 



