EELS AND ELVERS 243 



must go, unknowing but uncomplaining, in obedience to a 

 prompting which we in our ignorance call blind. 



Similarly the wingless progeny of the South African 

 locust-swarms have no sooner obtained some strength of 

 leg than away they start " voet gangers," they are called 

 by the Boers northwards, always northwards, back to the 

 interior whence their progenitors came. "Nothing," says 

 Mrs. Barber, " will stay their progress northward. Mountain 

 ranges, forests, rivers may intercept ; all these difficulties 

 will the 'foot travellers' surmount in their impulse to 

 journey northwards." These cases of migratory instinct are 

 in some respects even more remarkable than the migrations 

 of birds, for there is no individual among them who 

 has ever migrated before, and no possibility of parental 

 instruction. 



The elvers migrate up stream until they reach a pool or 

 pond or other congenial spot ; and this they make their 

 home. Some remain in the fresh water all their lives, 

 and these, it would seem, lay no eggs, and have no progeny. 

 But in the autumn some return to the brackish water of 

 the estuaries, and probably lay their eggs in the mud. 

 But nothing, or next to nothing, is known of the egg and 

 early development of the eel. It is curious that the down- 

 ward autumn migration of the larger eels seems always to 

 take place by night. The darker the night the better ; 

 moonlight checks them in their course ; but a murky air 

 and overcast sky tempt them onward and downward. 

 Then are the Thames eel-traps brought into play ; then do 

 the millers catch the eels by the hundredweight on iron 

 gratings below their sluices, such as I saw the other day 

 on the Hampshire Avon near Ringwood ; and then is there 

 rejoicing in the London eating-houses. 



My acquaintance with elvers is of comparatively recent 

 date. But I have known the older eels for many a long 



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