Slippery as an Eel. 17 1 



living condition, and others that it is hatched from the egg. 

 The matter has, however, been set at rest by the microscope, 

 which shows that the oily-looking substance, generally called 

 fat, which is found in the abdomen of the Eel, is really an 

 aggregation of eggs, and that these objects, minute as they 

 are, and which are not so large as the point of a pin, are 

 quite as perfect in their structure as the eggs of a moth or a 

 bird are seen to be to the naked, unaided vision. 



Anguilla rostrata, as the Common American Eel is techni- 

 cally known, is abundant in the United States, living in fresh- 

 water streams, but depositing its eggs, often eight millions to 

 a single fish, in the ocean, the young ascending the rivers. 

 Eels are devoid of ventral fins. Their scales, which are very 

 minute, are covered with a thick, slime-like material. Under 

 the microscope each scale is beautifully ornamented, and the 

 exquisite pattern formed by the scales on the skin may be 

 readily and effectively seen if a bit of it, when fresh, be 

 placed on the window-glass and allowed to dry. The sexes 

 are difficult to distinguish ; the females have the highest 

 dorsal fin, smaller eyes, and a lighter color than the males, 

 while the snout is generally broader at the tip. 



When contiguous to the sea, as in a pond near Wells, on 

 the coast of Maine, the Eels invariably go down into salt 

 water at night. As the connecting stream is narrow, the 

 sight is remarkable, thousands filling the channel, many of 

 whom, when alarmed, leaving the water and passing over the 

 dry rocks to the ocean. Eels are not the silent creatures 

 which many persons suppose them to be. They frequently 

 utter a sound, expressed by a single note, which is more 

 distinctly musical than the sounds made by other fishes, and 

 which has a clear metallic resonance. They are of slow 

 growth, scarcely reaching the length of twelve inches during 

 the first year, but subsequently attaining to large dimensions, 

 the preserved skins of two Eels, which Mr. Yarrall saw at 

 Cambridge, England, weighing together fifty pounds, the 

 heavier being twenty-seven pounds in weight. 



