PETROMYZON. 75 



Such is the power of life, that it completely re- 

 sists, for a long time, the gastric juice of the stom- 

 ach. Repeated observations are on record, by 

 credible eye-witnesses, who have seen birds of 

 prey, swallow an eel, that escaped, unharmed, in 

 a few minutes. Nor is this so very strange, when 

 it is recollected that the intestine is very short and 

 large, and that the imprisoned fish has prodigious 

 strength, in proportion to its weight, and above all 

 the rest, coated with a mucous, so slippery, that 

 the grip of a strong man's hand, cannot hold one 

 fast. 



On some of the highest points of the green moun- 

 tain, between Massachusetts and New York, in 

 those small basins of water which are formed be- 

 tween different eminences, lobsters are not only 

 numerous, but really and truly formed, precise- 

 ly like those of the ocean, yet they rarely exceed 

 two inches in length. The question at once arises, 

 how came these animals in that locality, if the ova 

 of the lobster were not conveyed there by some 

 bird ? The fresh water, together with the climate 

 of those high regions, have prevented the full de- 

 velopment of those miniature lobsters, though in 

 character, habit and anatomical structure, there is 

 the most perfect resemblance : and were the 

 ova from the family on the mountain, placed 

 under favorable circumstances, in the borders of 



