EELS AND LAMPERNES. 247 



the eel is produced by ova^ or by any other known 

 process, certain we are that no roe has ever been 

 detected. 



Writers on the history of the eel content them- 

 selves, but no one else, with the assertion that eels 

 seek the tidal waters and margin of the sea for 

 tlie purpose of procreation, but we are completely 

 puzzled to ascertain how the eels which inhabit 

 small ponds in the midland counties, without the 

 remotest access to ditch, brook, or river which 

 would conduct them to the supposed scene of their 

 operations, get there. 



In my practical experience and investigation of 

 tlie habits of the eel, I have emptied, or ^Haved," 

 small ponds of inland descrij)tion, and found the 

 usual complement of eels embedded in the mud. 



That in certain rivers and streams debouching 

 into the ocean the eels annually seek the tidal water 

 of the harbour, there can be no doubt ; and this 

 they do with the first autumnal inland flood. My 

 practical experience of the river Avon, whicli 

 empties itself into Christchurch Harbour, has shown 

 me the extent of the autumnal emigration of these 

 fish, from my having swept from my eel stage, 

 during a flood, sixteen hundred-weight of eels in 



