WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



I was much interested one day in May, in watching the 

 thousands of small eels which were making their way up 

 the river. It was some distance from the mouth, and where 

 the stream, confined by a narrow rocky channel, ran with 

 great strength. Nevertheless these little eels, which were 

 about six inches long, and as large round as a quill, perse- 

 vered in swimming against the stream. When they came 

 to afall.wheretheycouldnot possibly ascend, they wriggled 

 out of the water, and gliding along the rock close to the 

 edge, where the stone was constantly wet from the splash- 

 ing and spray of the fall, they made their way up till they 

 got above the difficulty, and then again slipping into the 

 water, they continued their course. For several hours there 

 was a continued succession of these little fish going up in 

 the same way; and for more than a week, the same thing 

 was to be seen every day. The perseverance they display- 

 was very great, for frequently, although washed back sev- 

 eral times, an eel would always continue its efforts till it 

 managed to ascend. Towards winter they are said to de- 

 scend the river again, in equal numbers.* Trout and many 

 birds feed constantly on these small eels, catching them 

 with great ease in the shallows. 



One summer day I was amused by watching the singular 



* Much fresh light has been thrown upon the life history of the eel since St John's day. 

 It has now been definitely ascertained that eels span at abysmal depths in the ocean and 

 that probably all die immediately after the act of reproduction. The autumnal migra- 

 tion, therefore, consistsof eels which, after living an indefinite number ofyears in fresh 

 water, move seaward impelled by the nisus generativus, and never return. The larval 

 form of the eel was regarded by ichthyologists until quite recently as an adult marine 

 fish, and was classed separately as the genus Leptocephalus. It is now known that Lept- 

 0{ephali axe. identical with the elvers or young eels which swarm into the streams in 

 spring and early summer, constituting the familiar phenomenon known in the south of 

 England as "eel-fare," i.e. the fare or journey of the eels. — Ed. 



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