AUGUILLA. 235 



selves from time to time, as occasion offers, in the 

 manner above described, the shoal must impercep- 

 tibly lessen until the whole have disposed of them- 

 selves in different places. 



I have not yet been able to ascertain at what 

 distance from Kingston the shoal has been seen. 

 The locks at Hampton, Sunbury, &c, must, how- 

 ever, retard their progress upwards. These young 

 eels are easily taken : and persons who want to 

 stock their ponds with them have only to lower a 

 bucket into the midst of the shoal, which many 

 persons do, who reside in the neighborhood of the 

 river, and a sufficient number is immediately taken 

 to answer their purpose. 



There is no doubt but that many of these little 

 animals perish during their progress ; but the 

 numbers which are annually taken in our rivers 

 show that a sufficient quantity escape to stock 

 them abundantly. * * * The most speedy meth- 

 ed of killing an eel is by putting it into tepid 

 water. 



On the marshy borders of the ocean, and at the 

 entrance of large, shallow bays, and the mouths of 

 rivers, where there is a deep soft mud, eels abound 

 beyond all human calculation. 



Three varieties of the eel, only, are familiarly 

 known in Massachusetts ; yet it is very probable 

 several others exist, of which we have, at present, 



