AUGUILLA. 227 



The eel is most certainly the intermediate link be- 

 tween serpents and fishes, possessing not only a sim- 

 ilar form to the first, but many of their peculiar 

 traits of character. Eels can live alternately in fresh 

 or salt water, or abandon both, with impunity, and 

 subsist for a short time on land. They leave their 

 aquatic hiding-places, in warm summer evenings, 

 having tlie power of closing up their gills, to crawl 

 over marshes in search of snails, and putrid animal 

 remains, — evidently exhibiting an exquisite sense 

 of smell. 



Oppian, who flourished many centuries ago, was 

 familiar with the habits of the eel, which are ad- 

 verted to in the Halieuticon, in the following lines. 



" Thus the mailed tortoise, and the wandering eel, 

 Oft to the nei2;hboring; beach will silent steal." 



Dr Hancock, a distinguished icthyologist, says 

 o^xhe Doras Costata, oy Hassar, " This species 

 is one of those fishes which possess the singular 

 property of deserting the water and travelling over 

 land. In those terrestrial excursions, large droves 

 of the species are frequently met with during very 

 dry seasons, for it is only at such periods that 

 they are compelled to this dangerous march, which 

 exposes them as a prey to so many and such 

 various enemies. 



When the water is leaving the pools in which 

 they commonly reside, the yarrows, (a spe- 



