AUGUILLA. 231 



numbers of goslings and ducklings, as soon as they 

 took to the water. Having occasion, about this 

 time, to draw his pond, he found a number of 

 eels, and on opening them, the undigested remains 

 of many of the lost birds were found. Eels have 

 been caught in fresh water ponds, weighing 

 eighteen and twenty pounds. 



They are supposed to be more universally spread 

 over the globe than any other tribe of animals, with 

 the exception of man. It is said that none are 

 seen above the Falls of Niagara, or in Lake Erie. 

 Some one supposes that all the eels in the inte- 

 rior visit the sea, annually, and then return from 

 their pilgrimage to the old spot ; — and it is more- 

 over asserted, but certainly on doubtful authority, 

 that if an eel remain habitually in fresh w ater, it 

 becomes barren. We do not credit a word of 

 this ; there is some want of accuracy in the exam- 

 ination. 



Though they have been repeatedly seen fifty 

 and sixty feet high on the rocks of the cataract, 

 wending their way up, they never yet succeeded 

 in the enterprise. Mr Clinton supposes the rea- 

 son why eels do not exist in Lake Erie, if any 

 were left there on the subsiding of the waters of 

 the flood, is because their communication was cut 

 off from the ocean, and in illustration of his theo- 

 ry, relates that the Passaic river is formed by the 



