352 FACT ACxAINST FICTION, 



tlien, as regards the eel, and its enormous autumnal 

 migration to the sea, unless they re-ascend the 

 rivers in the condition of a snig, cannot be ac- 

 counted for; they are lost entirely to our know- 

 ledge. In 1871 I knew of a fresh-water eel being 

 taken in a sprat-net four miles out at sea. 



It is the custom, in some places, to call any 

 little eel a snig, and lience arises the term 

 ^'sniggling for eels"; but, in my opinion, the 

 snig, or the eel in snig condition, is found in 

 rivers only, and does not exist in inland brooks, 

 stagnant waters, or in isolated ponds fed by springs. 



There are innumerable small ponds within my 

 knowdedge, and in those ponds there are eels that 

 never leave them ; therefore it is too sweeping an 

 assertion to say that all eels proceed to the sea 

 for breeding purposes. To my certain knowledge, 

 there are pond-bred eels, as well as eels l^red in 

 the tidal w^aters of the ocean harbours, and by 

 way of meeting the partly true assertion that eels 

 will travel througli the dewy grass, I affirm tliat 

 no one ever detected the elver in a similar question- 

 able position ; yet in an isolated pond I liave 

 found the young of eels, and an elver in the 

 water in St. James's Park. 



