XVII. 



EELS AND ELVERS. 245 



thirst was insatiable because the hind -quarters had been 

 cut off by the fall of the portcullis gates. 



A more serious, but not more impressive piece of anato- 

 mical investigation, undertaken at a later date, was the 

 endeavour, not wholly unsuccessful, to verify for myself 

 the presence of an accessory heart near the tail of an eel. 

 This organ, which was described by Marshall Hall, and is 

 figured by Sir Richard Owen, is in connection with one of 

 the great veins near its point of origin in the tail. It 

 beats very rapidly and propels the blood onward towards 

 the heart, with which it has no further connection than 

 that it is a subsidiary organ of propulsion. I was not able 

 at that time to make out its connections with the neigh- 

 bouring vessels ; and have not examined one since. 



The eel of which I have been speaking the sharp - 

 nosed eel must not be confounded with the conger eel 

 that is found in the sea around our coasts. For though 

 the former is found in the estuarine mud-flats bordering 

 the sea, where the creatures sometimes huddle together 

 in great numbers, being very sensitive to cold, and thus 

 fall a prey to the fisherman's spear, or are sometimes dug 

 out in a helpless torpid mass, it is not a thoroughly marine 

 fish like the conger. I well remember fishing for conger 

 one dark night about three miles off Lulworth, on the 

 coast of Dorsetshire. We could see our lines glowing with 

 phosphorescent light for some feet from the surface, as the 

 tide flowed past them. No congers came to our bait, and 

 I, growing tired of waiting, contented myself with angling 

 for the less ambitious whiting-pout. I had pulled up 

 several of these, when my brother complained that his line 

 was fast to the bottom. " No it isn't ! " he suddenly cried, 

 " or if it is, the bottom is moving slowly off toward Port- 

 land." It was a fine conger ; and I shall never forget the 

 sight of his ugly head as he came up out of the water. 



