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worms, snail?, and such other kind of food they may find there ; 

 on this account it is difficult to keep them in some waters, for if 

 dissatisfied with their quarters, they will soon desert them and 

 pursue an overland pilgrimage in search of some more agreeable 

 locality. 



In support of the migration of eels Mr. Yarrell has inserted the 

 following extract from Dr. Hasting's natural history of Worcester- 

 shire. "A relative of the late Mr. Parrott was out in his park with 

 his keeper near a large piece of water, on a very beautiful evening, 

 when the keeper drew his attention to a very fine eel quietly as- 

 cending the bank of the pool, and with an undulating motion 

 making his way through the long grass : on further observation 

 he perceived a considerable number of eels quietly proceeding to a 

 range of stews, nearly the distance of a quarter of a mile from the 

 large piece of water from whence they started. The stews were 

 supplied by a rapid brook, and in all probability the instinct of the 

 fish led them in that direction as a means of finding their way to 

 some large river from whence their ultimate destination, the sea, 

 might be obtained." 



With regard to the generation of eels, the ancients seemed to 

 have entertained some very extraordinary ideas. Aristotle assures 

 us that he could find no difference of sexes nor yet any organs of 

 generation : for which reason they have been supposed by many to 

 have proceeded from putrefaction of the mud on the sides of ponds 

 and rivers. Pliny talks much in the same strain, affirming that 

 though they are neither male nor female yet that by means of rub- 

 bing themselves against rocks and stones they detached particles 

 or scabs from their bodies, that quickening by degrees turned into 

 eels. Nor have moderns been wanting who have also given into 

 these opinion?, or maintained others equally absurd. Some holding 

 that these fish couple together like dew worms, at the same time 

 shedding a kind of viscous fluid, which by being retained in the 

 mud reproduced the species. Others even entertained the absurd 

 idea that they were created from the mud alone. 



But the most ridiculous opinion of the whole, (which it is won- 

 derful should obtain one moment's credit with any person gifted 

 with reason) is, that eels may be produced from horsehairs cast 

 into the river, which Captain Browne, in an interesting note to his 

 edition of White's Selbourne, informs us is a very common belief 

 among the school 'boys of Scotland, and that they at least consider 



