174 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Eels. 



is applied to a particular eel of small size, of which 

 the tis:ure here introduced represents the head. 

 This eel is the Anfruille plat-bee of Cuvier, 'IWgne 

 An.,' torn. ii. p. 349, who considers it as a distinct 

 species. It is the Griu-eel also of Mrs. Bowdich's 

 • British Freshwater Fishes,' No. 28, in which work 

 the three eels already spoken of here are well figured ; 

 and the species were considered by Cuvier as identi- 

 cal with those of the 'Risgne Animal.' " 



If, then, this last be distinct from A. latirostris, 

 we have four species of eels in the waters of our 

 islands, and the same occur in those of France. 

 With respect to the term Grij,' we may observe, 

 that in most parts of England it is merely applied 

 to any small eel, when not above nine or ten inches 

 long, and of which from eight to ten are required to 

 make up a pound weight. 



In their habits and manners these eels are 

 very similar, and their flesh equally excellent. 

 Eels inhabit ponds, rivers, and the brackish water 

 at the mouths of rivers ; and further, they may be 

 regarded as migratory fishes : in the autumn they 

 make their way to the sea in vast numbers, as it is 

 believed, for the purpose of depositing their spawn ; 

 whether they ever return up the river again, is not 

 very clear, but in spring myriads of minute eels not 

 above three or four inches in length make their 

 way from the brackish water, up the rivers, which 

 they ascend, dispersing themselves as they proceed. 

 These migrations have been observed m various 

 rivers, as the Thames, Severn, Dee, &c. Some 

 writers consider that the parent eels, as well as their 

 countless fry, return from the brackish water of the 

 estuary, and regain their haunts in the river. 



"In a tideway river," says Mr. Yarrell, "the 

 descent of eels towards the brackish water takes 

 place during the autumn, and various devices are 

 employed in different streams to intercept them in 

 their progress." Among these are frames of wood 

 supporting wicker baskets or traps, which form very 

 picturesque objects, and are common at various 

 places along the Thames ; yet it is very clear that 

 all the adult eels in tidal rivers do not descend to 

 the estuar)-, for it is well known that thousands lie 

 buried in the mud to the depth of twelve or sixteen 

 inches, in a state of torpidity, and quantities are 

 often taken in this condition by means of eel-speais. 

 In Somersetshire, says Mr. Yarrell, "the peop.e 

 know how to find the holes in the banks of rivers- 

 in which eels are laid up, by the hoar-frost not 

 lying over them, as it does elsewhere, and dig them 

 out in heaps. The practice of searching for eels in 

 cold weather is not confined to this country. Dr. 

 Mitchell in his paper ' On the Fishes of New York,' 

 published in the * Transactions ' of the Literary and 

 Philosophical Society of that city, says, "In the 

 winter eels lie concealed in the mud, and are taken 

 in great numbers by spears." The torpidity of the 

 eel is connected with a low degree of respiration ; 

 and, as Dr. Marshall Hall has shown, with this 

 low grade of respiration co-exist great muscular 

 irritability, a low temperature, and great tenacity 

 of life, together with the power of long sustaining 

 the privation of air and food. These peculiarities 

 are characteristic of these fishes, and, as Mr. Yar- 

 rell observes, the muscular irritability of eels ac- 

 counts for their resUess motions and agitation during 

 thunder-storms, at which time hundreds, roused from 

 their haunts, rush tumultuously, and are captured in 

 various traps, which imprison all that enter. He 

 adds also, that their power of enduring a low tem- 

 perature is shown by the fact that eels exposed on 

 the ground till frozen, then buried in the snow, and 

 at the end of four days put into water, and so thawed, 

 slowly discover signs of life, and soon perfectly re- 

 cover. Now this power of bearing cold is at singular 

 variance with the opinion that tliey are averse to a 

 low temperature, and consequently that none exist 

 in the rivers of Siberia, the Wolga, the Danube, or 

 any of its tributary streams ; nav, more, that they 

 are killed by cold or frost. Mr. Thompson, in 

 ' Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' March, 1841, says, 

 " On the 6th, 7th, and 8ih of the present month, 

 February, 1841, great quantities of this fish in a 

 dead state floated down the river Lagan to the 

 quays at Belfast. Here, upon these days, and along 

 uie coast of the river within the tideway, collecting 

 dead eels was quite an occupation at low water. 

 Three examples sent me by my friend Edmund 

 Getty. Esq., were the Common Eel (A. acutiros- 

 tris, Yarr.). They were found dead, of all sizes, up 

 to the largest." It appears that a piercing east wind, 

 accompanied by a hard frost, prevailed ; and as at 

 low water a great extent of mud-banks is uncovered, 

 the eels there imbedded are supposed to have 

 perished from the intense cold arising from the 

 rapid evaporation occasioned by the bitter gale. 

 In January, 1814, great quantities of eels in the 

 same river met with a similar fate, an east wind 

 prevailing, with an intense frost. In 1841, during 

 the month of March, at the same time that the eels 

 perished in the Lagan, multitudes of congers, vary- 

 ing from a foot to hve or six feet in length, perished 



in the river Lee, about six miles below Cork. (See 

 Mr. F. Jennings' report in the ' Ann. and Mag. of 

 Nat. Hist.,' May, 1841.) We believe that other 

 instances of a like nature are on record. 



With respect to the assertion that there are no 

 eels in the Danube, it is not quite correct : there 

 are none in the Lower Danube. Captain Widdring- 

 ton, R.N., says, " During a recent tour in Germany, 

 I was surprised to see eels put upon the table at 

 Wurtzburg, which is high up the Mayn, and in a 

 very cold country during winter ; I was subsequently 

 informed that they are abundant at Hanau, lower 

 down the same river, the waters of which must be 

 at least as cold as those of the Danube. On ar- 

 riving at Vienna, I mentioned the circumstance to 

 Professor Heckel, who has the charge of the ichthyo- 

 logical department, who informed me that great 

 nupibers were brought to Vienna from Ulm, which 

 is high up the river (Danube), but that they have 

 never been seen lower down. Subsequent inquiry, 

 and having ascertained .the very great pains which 

 have been taken in investigating the natural history 

 of the river, satisfied me that this account was true ; 

 and that it is next to impossible they should not 

 have been detected had they frequented the 

 Lower Danube. The fish-market at Vienna is held 

 on the river, the well-boats being moored to the 

 shore, whence the inhabitants of that luxurious 

 capital are supplied with the most delicious fish 

 brought from all sides. These people informed me 

 that they drew part of their supplies of eels from 

 L'lm, but that the greater part came from Bohemia, 

 consequently from the head-waters of the Elbe, 

 which ought to be a still colder river than either 

 the Rhine or Danube. This winter the thermometer 

 was 19" at Vienna, whilst at Dresden I was told it 

 fell to 24" Reaumur. 



" Now, assuming the case as I have stated, that the 

 habitat of the genus is confined to tlie upper streams 

 of the Danube, we have the fact that migration is 

 not necessary to them, though it is certainly their 

 habit in this country. It must be remembered that I 

 Ulra is in a very cold country, being considerably 

 higher than Vienna. There can be little doubt that 

 the eels there hybernate in the mud, but why do 

 they not remove to the more genial region, and to 

 the admirable locality of the delta of that great river ? 

 The reason I take to be the following — the waters 

 of the Danube may be divided into three classes : 

 first those of the Black Forest and that vicinity and 

 those which fall into the river from the left towards 

 Bohemia. These waters are more or less rich and 

 fat, and of the description which affords the most 

 abundant nutriment to fish, especially of the genus 

 under consideration. Below Ulm, however, a 

 change soon becomes visible : the great tri- 

 butaries from the Alps begin to pour in, and 

 soon alter the character of the water. These 

 Alpine streams may be divided into two classes : 

 — those which proceed at once from the gla- 

 ciers and upper valleys without meeting with 

 large lakes to filter and purify them, like the 

 Rhine and Rhone; these waters are charged with 

 the comminuted particles of the rocks over which 

 they have passed, and are not only rapid, but have 

 a peculiar strength and rawness, which, I consider, 

 combined with the want of food, renders them un- 

 inhabitable by the eel and many other sorts of fish ; 

 even the trout are scarce and of bad quality, and 

 the only good trout in the Alps are those from the 

 lakes or the streams of the plains, where better 

 nourishment is afforded to them. The second class 

 of Alpine waters are those which have passed 

 through and been purified by the lakes, from which 

 they issue clear, softer, and warmer than those we 

 have mentioned. Even these rivers are not favour- 

 able to the propagation of fish in general, and 1 

 was surprised to find that in the country so elo- 

 quently described by Sir H. Davy, and which I ex- 

 pected to find teeming with fish, that it was scarce 

 and dear, though full of the most beautiful lakes 

 and rivers." (' Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' Nov. 

 1841.) 



It is then, according to these views, from the vast 

 influx of Alpine water, as the Inn, the Traun, the 

 Sav£, and Drave, that the Lower Danube is unfitted 

 for this fish, and not from the mere coldness of the 

 river. In our own country it may be observed 

 that few or no eels inhabit mountain streams and 

 rivers. 



That eels breed in the fresh water of inland rivers 

 and lakes, from which they are unable to visit the 

 sea, is a point on which little doubt exists; indeed, 

 Mr. Yarrell expressly states, that in the Mole, the 

 Wey, and the Longford river, and in various large 

 ponds, from which there is no possible egress, the 

 eel does not deposit its spawn till near the end of 

 April, while in eels from the brackish water of 

 higher temperature the breeding season takes place 

 much earlier. 



Eels often quit the water, and wander during 

 warm dewy nights on the grass, either in quest of 

 worms, frogs, and other food, or in order to change 



1 their locality; hence they often travel from rivers 

 into adjacent ponds, where the fry of other fishes 

 are thinned by their rapacity. On one occasion we 

 ourselves saw three or four eels on the banks of the 

 Severn, near Bewdley: it was dusk, the weather 

 WM warm, and the grass wet with dew ; several 

 small ]>ools close by seemed at U^e same time alive 

 with eels. 



The passage of the shoaU of young eels up the 

 Thames in spring, which is continued for several 

 days, is called Ed/are, the Saxon word fare signi- 

 fying to travel (as in wayfare, seaf^inns;, thorough- 

 tare), and Mr. Yarrell thinks that the term Eiver, 

 applied along the Severn to a young eel, is a cor- 

 ruption of Eel/are. The London market is princi- 

 pally supplied with eels from Holland by Dutch 

 fishermen. The vessels are built with capacious 

 wells for their preservation alive, and each brings a 

 cargo of fifteen or twenty thousand pounds' weight 

 of live eels, for which the Dutch merchant pays a 

 duty of 13/. per cargo for permission to sell. 



The eel is among the fishes of the South Sea 

 Islands. Ellis, in his ' Polynesian Researches,' vol. ii. 

 p. 286, says : — " In Otaheite eels are great favourites, 

 and are tamed and fed until they attain an enormous 

 size. These pets are kept in large holes, two or 

 three feet deep, partially filled with water. On the 

 sides of these pits they generally remained, except- 

 ing when called by the person who fed them. I 

 have been several times with the young chief, when 

 he has sat down by the side of the hole, and by 

 giving a shrill sort of whi.stle has brought out an 

 enormous eel, which has moved about the surface 

 of the water, and eaten with confidence out of its 

 master's hand." 



Fig. 2493 represents a view of the Thames at 

 Eton ; in the whole of this part of the river, from 

 Hampton up to Reading, and beyond, this fish is 

 very abundant. Fig. 2494 represents a fish-basket, 

 better adapted for large fish than those in common 

 use. It contains a fine Thames trout. 



SECTION LOPHOBRANCHII. 



The fishes of this group are distinguis)ied by hav- 

 ing the branchiae, or gills, divided into little tufts of 

 a rounded form, disposed in pairs along the branchial 

 arcs, instead of exhibiting a pectinated structure as 

 in the previous fishes. They are concealed under a 

 large operculum or flap attached around its margin 

 by means of a membrane, leaving only a small 

 aperture for the exit of the water, and exhibiting in 

 its structure merely slight traces of rays. The fish 

 of this group, besides, have the body cuirassed from 

 one extremity to the other by scutcheons, which 

 render it angular. The swimming-bladder is of 

 tolerable size, but of thin tissue. 



Family SYNGNATHID^ (PIPE-FISHES). 



2495. — ^The Deep-nosed Pipe-fish 



(Si/ngnathus Typhle). In the genus Syngnafhus 

 the body is elongated, slender, cuirassed with plates 

 in parallel lines; the head is long, the jaws are 

 produced, united, and tubular; there are no ventral 

 fins. In two species, the great pipe-fish and the 

 deep-nosed pipe-fish, the males have an elongated 

 pouch under the tail, closed by two folding mem- 

 branes. These two fishes (which have doi-sal, pec- 

 toral, and caudal fins, and a posterior one below, 

 while the other species have only a dorsal fin) are 

 common on many parts of our coast, sometimes 

 appearing among sea-weed in low water, at other 

 times seeking the deep-water : they " move slowly, 

 about in a singular manner, horizontally or perpen- 

 dicularly, with the heads downwards or upvv'aids, 

 and in every attitude of contortion, in search of food, 

 which chiefly seems to be water insects." 



One portion of their history is very remarkable : 

 the male receives the roe of the female in the sub- 

 caudal pouch referred to, and here the eggs, which 

 are large and yellow, lie in hemispherical depres- 

 sions until ■hatched, when the young make their 

 escape. But at what time or in what manner the 

 eggs are transferred to this receptacle appears to 

 be not as yet ascertained. Mr. Yarrell observes, 

 " M. Risso notices the great attachment of the 

 adult pipe-fish to their young ; and this pouch pro- 

 bably serves as a place of shelter to which the 

 young ones retreat in case of danger. I have been 

 assured by fishermen that if the young were shaken 

 out of the pouch into the water over the side of the 

 boat, they did not swim away, but when the parent 

 fish was held in the water in a favourable position, 

 the young would again enter the pouch." The 

 mouth in these fishes is small, placed at the ex- 

 tremity of the tubular snout, and opening obliquely 

 upwards. In the deep-nosed pipe-fish the tulje is 

 much deeper than in the great pipe-fish, and more 

 coiiipressed at the sides. 



To the present family belong those extraordinary 

 fishes, the Hippocampi". 



