THE FAMILY OF EELS. 309 



but sometimes of the Aveight of twenty pounds. In Hungary 

 they are found in large numbers in lakes and ponds. 



Yet although inhabiting countries distinguished by such a 

 variety of climate, these fish are known to be deeply sensible 

 of changes of the season, and more especially when these changes 

 are sudden. Severe cold is in a high degree irksome and 

 injurious, to escape from which it is a usual resource to bury 

 themselves in the sand or soil at the bottom of the river, or 

 to creep into the recesses of the bank, where, in the accustomed 

 hole, they have been careful to know there is more than one 

 safe outlet for escape in case of danger; and here, for the sake 

 of warmth, large numbers have been known to assemble together; 

 as has been found the case also Avhen buried in the mud at 

 the bottom. In spite of this, however, Spallanzani records that 

 in a cold winter so many Eels were killed in the marshes of 

 Commachio near Venice, as Aveighed something more than six 

 thousand six hundred pounds. But there is reason to believe 

 that when even severe cold is gradual in its approach, it is a 

 state of torpidity, and not death, that is produced. In the 

 "Annual Register" for 1778, p. 99, Dr, King is quoted as 

 saying, on the authority of the Russian Consul, that in Russia 

 Eels are designedly exposed to the frost in order that they may 

 be carried safely to a distance. They are then packed in straw, 

 and after four days, when thrown into cold water, they become 

 perfectly recovered. Other examples of similar facts might be 

 produced; and it seems probable that in the sea they find a 

 higher amount of protection and comfort than anywhere in 

 fresh water; and in the milder climate of Cornwall, when the 

 ebbing tide had left a sheet of ice on the shore, large Eels, 

 which had been taken from holes in a pier left almost dry, 

 were found still in possession of their usual activity; but the 

 philosophical experiments of John Hunter have placed their 

 history in this respect in an intelligible and satisfactory light. 

 With a thermometer formed for the purpose he found the heat 

 of the stomach in an Eel to be 37°; and then, having placed 

 the fish in a cold mixture, which at first he ascertained to be 

 at 10°, but which afterwards Avas reduced to a still colder 

 temperature, the heat of the stomach was brought down to 

 31°, and the creature appeared to be dead; and yet on the 

 following day it had become restored to life and activity. 



