EELS IN WATER 1'11'ES AND THEIR MIOHATION. — KISHOP. G49 



aiul dropping ou the other side. They have been known to 

 olinib steep ascents also. 



It is probable that the migration do^m stream is made at 

 night, dark nights being chosen, and nioonligiit being sutticient 

 to stojj them. The yonng eels going np in the spring travel by 

 day. 



It is claimed that eels are peculiarly averse to oold, and that 

 the temperature of the brackish, water of estuaries is always 

 higher than that of unmixed salt or fresh water. Eels bury 

 themselves in \vinter a foot or more in the mud near the outlet 

 of a stream, and are taken with a sj)ear. It is uncertain whether 

 such eels spend the summer in salt or fresh water. To the 

 ordinary observer there is little difference in appeara'nce be- 

 tween the eels taken during the summer in salt water and those 

 taken from the lakes. 



On one occasion eels tilled a main on Granville Street, Hali- 

 fax, so completely that when the pipe was cut it became neces- 

 sary to make an auger to bore the pipe out. 



The result of ]Mr. Bishop's study and experiments is most 

 interesting, and further work will add equally valuable in- 

 formation. A better acquaintance with the halnts of eels will 

 be the means of saving much money and annoyance, and may 

 enable superintendents to prevent entirely the entrnnce of eels 

 to the pipes of water systems. 



R. II. Bnowx. — At Sydney ]\lines, Cape Breton, snnif years 

 ago, we nn^de a reservoir by closing the culvert in an embank- 

 ment on the colliery railway. The dry valley thus closed was 

 converted into a lake of a few acres in extent and some ten feet 

 deep at the middle. Its source of water supply was the drainage 

 of the iields on the surrou'nding slopes, and its only outlet Avas 

 by pipes of four inches diaineter and about two thousand seven 

 hundred yards in length, which conducted the water fi'om this 

 reservoir to the colliery engines at the Princess pits. After .i 

 few years eels were found in the pipes obstructing the flow of 



PKOf. & TuAN's. X. S. Inst. Sri., Vol. XI. Trans. QQ. 



