EDIBLE FISHES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 189 



Eels are very tenacious of life, and given favorable circumstance, can 

 remain for a long time out of their natural elemeat without inconvenience ; 

 and the fact is well attested that should they for any reason take a dislike to 

 their surroundings, such, for instance, as from the pollution of the water, or the 

 imminence of a prolonged drought, they will leave any such localities as 

 isolated ponds, and migrate overland to the nearest pure water ; while it has 

 also been asserted that they voluntarily leave the water on damp cool nights 

 and traverse the surrounding pastures in search of frogs, snails, worms, and 

 similar food. When on migration they are not easily turned from their path, 

 crossing even ploughed fields in their effort to reach more suitable quarters. 



Eels are very susceptible of cold, and in localities subject to a low winter 

 temperature are accustomed to bury themselves deeply in the mud during the 

 continuance of the cold season ; nevertheless, that they can bear great cold 

 without life becoming extinct is evident from the following extract, quoted by 

 Day, from "Chamber's Edinburgh Jourjial," for November 29th, 1851: 

 " Dr. Kirklaud, of Cleveland, states that last winter as the frost set in, a 

 number of eels in a millpond, incommoded by the subsidence of the ice, 

 migrated to other ponds, from which he obtained eight or ten bushels half 

 frozen. Having been placed in a cold, exposed room, they were as stiff and 

 almost as brittle as icicles in the morning. A tub was filled with them, and 

 water from a well added ; then they were placed in a warm storeroom for 

 the purpose of thawing. In the course of an hour or two they were resus- 

 citated and as active as if just taken during the summer." 



In the streams which rise in the Blue Mountains, and flow into the 

 Nepean, Eels are in some places common in summer, but they totally 

 disappear about the month of March, probably making their way .down 

 stream to the deeper and warmer waters of the parent river, though it is 

 possible that some may remain concealed during the winter months under 

 rocks or among driftwood and other debris ; the water of these streams is 

 clear and intensely cold. 



The Long-finned Eel is. common in all the rivers and estuaries which drain 

 the eastern watershed of New South Wales, but whether this or any other 

 species of Eel inhabits the rivers and lagunes of the vast territory lying to 

 the westward of the mountains is still an open question. They have on 

 many occasions been reported from thence ; nor is there any reason why 

 they should not be plentiful, nor any obstruction in the main river system 

 of the Murray, which could eff"ectually bar their passage from its embouchure 

 to the interior, since we have received from Bourke a species of Toadfish 

 (Tetrodon inermis). AVhen on a visit to the Cooma district, the author was 

 informed that Eels were plentiful in the Umaralla Eiver, which empties into 

 the Murrumbidgee, but no specimens were obtained, nor have examples ever 

 beensentto eitherthe Australian or theUniversity Museum, the preponderance 

 of evidence is, therefore, against any Eel being a resident of our western 

 waters. It has been suggested that many of these reports arise through the 

 ignorance of their captors causing them to mistake the common Freshwater 

 Catfish {Copidoglanis tandanus) — not, as erroneously asserted by Tenison 

 Woods, Plotosus atiguillaris Lacep., which is a marine littoral species 

 for an Eel, though this suggestion is ajiparently supported by the name 

 "Eelfish," applied to C. tandanus by Sir Thomas Mitchell. 



Though not alluded to by Saville Kent, this species is found along the 

 entire Queensland coast, north to Cape York, from whence were obtained 

 several specimens now in the British Museum collection, while Macleay 

 records it from the Mary Eiver, and the Lillesmere Lagunes. By Castelnau 

 it is noticed as from Western Port and the Mordialloc Eiver. 



