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that even Pennant, whose industry is at least a 

 strong ground of palliation for his blunders, appears 

 not to have been able to divest himself of the notion 

 that there is a spice of the serpent in the habits and 

 disposition of the eel, as well as a slight resemblance 

 in the shape. It may not be amiss to give the sub- 

 stance of the passage, as containing a very remarkable 

 admixture of truth derived from observation and error 

 begotten by prejudice. " The eel," says Mr. Pennant, 

 " is singular in several matters relating to its natural 

 history, and in some respects borders on the reptile 

 tribe ; the eel is known to quit its element, and during 

 the night to wander along the meadows, not merely 

 for change of habitation, but also for the sake of prey, 

 feeding on the snails in its passage ; during winter it 

 beds itself in the mud, and continues torpid like the 

 serpent tribe, is very impatient of cold, will eagerly 

 seek shelter in a wisp of straw flung into a pond in 

 severe weather, and which has sometimes been prac- 

 tised as a method of taking them." This does not go 

 quite the length of the common saying, which how- 

 ever is applied ironically to persons who are not over 

 wise, that they would answer well for " catching eels 

 among green barley ;" though Albertus goes the length 

 of saying that he had actually seen them leave the 

 water and take up their abode during the night in a 

 hayrick, where, however, they did not find a place of 

 safety, inasmuch as they died of cold before the 

 morning. That eels do avoid the colder parts of the 

 water at certain seasons of the year is no doubt true ; 

 but, as we shall see afterwards, the reason of it is 

 physiological rather than a mere avoidal of the cold 

 tor their own personal comfort. Indeed if some of 

 the reports, which are stated as from personal obser- 

 vation be true, eels are capable of being frozen up 

 during the cold weather. This, though singular, must 

 not be regarded as an impossibility ; for it is very 

 probable that eels pass the very cold weather, at least 

 in cold countries, in a state resembling hybernation. 

 The account of the freezing of three eels was given by 

 Mr. Swallow, who was a good many years ago British 

 consul-general in Russia. " Having," says he, "occa- 

 sion to go from Petersburg to Moscow, where eels 

 are a great rarity, he ordered some to carry as a pre- 

 sent ; upon being taken out of the water, they were 

 thrown upon the ground to be frozen, and soon ap- 

 peared quite dead, and almost a piece of ice ; they 

 were then packed in snow, and when he arrived at 

 Moscow, which was four days after, the eels being 

 put into cold water, and so thawed, discovered gradu- 

 ally signs of life, and soon perfectly recovered." 



The supposed relationship between eels, and ser- 

 pents very naturally led to the imputation of the for- 

 mer of many of the fables related of the origin of the 

 latter. It was a very general belief, in ancient times, 

 that serpents of the most deadly venom were bred 

 out of the mud or slime of the Nile and other flood- 

 ing rivers of warm countries, when the drought set in 

 and the waters subsided, leaving a sediment upon the 

 banks, replete certainly with the germs of small lite of 

 various kinds, but quite incapable of itself of originating 

 the most tiny insect. It was observed also that other 

 poisonous reptiles brought forth their young alive ; 

 and the two characters, though the one was purely 

 fabulous and the other real, were jumbled together in 

 the supposed production of eels. It may not be amiss 

 to quote from a very impartial compiler an abridg- 

 ment of those opinions, the more so that some ot them 

 have been maintained by writers on natural history, 



889 



otherwise judicious and deserving, and that down 

 to the present time ; for it is only within these few 

 years that Mr. Yarrell, whose researches have cleared 

 up many important points in the economy of the ani- 

 mal kingdom, and especially in that of fishes, demon- 

 strated in the most clear and conclusive manner that 

 the generation of these fish takes place in the same 

 way as that of all fishes which are very prolific, 

 namely, by spawning. " The ancients," says the ac- 

 count which we quote, "adopted a most wifd opinion 

 about the generation of these fish, believing them to 

 be either created from mud, or that the scrapings of 

 their bodies, which they left on the stones, were ani- 

 mated and became young eels. Some moderns gave 

 into these opinions, and into others equally extrava- 

 gant ; one in particular gives instructions fur produc- 

 ing them by art : ' Cut up two turfs covered with 

 May dew, and lay one upon the other, the grassy 

 side inwards, and thus expose them to the heat of the 

 sun; in a few hours there will spring from them an 

 infinite quantity of eels ;' not imagining the possibility 

 of water being supplied with fish, by the conveyance 

 of the spawn by aquatic birds of prey, in a similar 

 manner as vegetation is spread by many land birds. 

 As to their immediate generation, it has been amply 

 proved to be effected by the ordinary course of nature, 

 and that they are viviparous. Many persons have 

 convinced themselves of the fact, by opening and 

 taking from the eel a small soft whitish substance 

 knotted curiously together; upon being put into water 

 this has separated, and the young eels were perfect, 

 and, though not bigger than a small thread, have swam 

 about ; this discovery always took place the end of 

 summer or the beginning of autumn, and has been 

 adduced as a confirmation of their going down to the 

 salt water to spawn. Those that remain in the rivers, 

 or that have been carried by floods into rivulets and 

 ditches, of which some are to be found at all times, 

 produce the young in the same way." The catalogue 

 of absurdities with regard to the production of eels 

 might easily be extended to a very considerable length ; 

 and though it is not our intention to record the de- 

 tails of these, yet their number and the inveteracy 

 with which many of them are believed, even in our 

 own times, render it necessary to take some notice 

 of them. When it is found that prejudices of this 

 kind are general among many nations, and contii ued 

 through the lapse of ages, it showed that theie is 

 something like truth in the foundation of it, and these 

 are precisely the cases in which writers, who address 

 themselves to the great body of the people, should 

 exert themselves to the utmost in removing the ground 

 of the prejudice. One of the most singular errors of 

 public belief, with regard to the production of eels, is 

 that they are formed of the hairs which drop from 

 the tails of entire horses which find their way into 

 the water. The hair, according to the belief, is first 

 converted into a species of Filaria or ihread-worm, 

 the Gordhts aquaticui, of Linnteus, which is exceedingly 

 common in small brooks and pools, especially afier 

 summer showers. This animal is not thicker ihan a 

 moderate sewing thrrad, and about four or five inches 

 in length, swimming about with considerable activity, 

 and often twining its body into very curious knots. 

 It bi longs to the leech family, or rather is closely 

 allied to them ; for though its body is formed of rings, 

 it is not extensile and contractile, like that of the 

 leeches, neither is it provided with any sucking appa- 

 ratus, so far as is known. Yet this creature is, in many 



