EEL 
to be removed wholesale before the water was freed. 
When they make their first appearance from the sea, 
the young are almost thread-like, and one imagines that 
it must be several years before the adult state is reached. 
They are often found inhabiting isolated lakes and ponds, 
and one wonders how, unless artificially introduced, they 
come to be there unless, as seems proven, they have the 
power of making their way overland. If this is so, it 
seems strange that field naturalists so seldom meet with 
the Eel when engaged upon such journeys. They are 
very fond of tenanting water that has for its bed a thick 
WR y 
de UOMO NN 
SS 
: - SS 
Common Eel Fig to 
deposit of mud, and it is stated that during Winter they 
remain concealed there in a torpid condition. Frozen 
water certainly does not affect them, indeed I have myself 
seen Eels taken from a solid block of ice which have at 
once shown signs of activity when immersed in tepid 
water. It is mostly a nocturnal-feeder, as is proved by 
the number that are caught on Eel-lines and traps put 
out at night. But that it also feeds during the day is 
evidenced by the number caught by anglers on the 
Norfolk Broads and elsewhere. ‘The Eel is a ravenous 
feeder, and when once it is on the feed a number are 
likely to be secured. They are often on “the run” 
during, or after, a thunderstorm, the reason apparently 
77 
