290 THE CONGER. 



The Conger. 



The conger bears some resemblance to tbe common eel, so much 

 so indeed, that many more positive than learned in these matters, 

 have stoutly maintained that they both were the same identical spe- 

 cies ; the conger being only an eel of larger growth, and the dif- 

 ference in colour and appearance, being solely occasioned by their 

 abode in the salt water ; but to a scientific person, the two species 

 are easily distinguishable ; in fact such a marked difference exists 

 between them, that Cuvier has withdrawn the conger from the ge- 

 nus anguilla, and made it the foundation of a sub -genus under the 

 name of conger. 



The chief marks of difference between the eel and conger, inde- 

 pendently of tbe colours are : 1, that the latter, however small it 

 may be, has always the upper jaw projecting beyond the lower, 

 whilst the common eel is equally remarkable for its protuberant 

 under jaw ; 2, the lateral line is scarcely visible in the com- 

 mon eel, being a series of minute mucous orifices, whilst that of 

 the conger is very distinctly marked, being broad and of a whitish 

 colour ; 3, the conger is also much more bony than the common 

 eel, having 40 more vertebrae, and the latter having only 116, 

 the conger 156 ; and also in the lower part of the body, particu- 

 larly towards the tail, the conger's is so full of small bones as to 

 render that portion in a small fish scarcely eatable, but which are 

 never to be found in a common eel. 



But for all this, a middle sized conger of from fifteen to twenty 

 pounds, or indeed one of much larger size, is by no means bad 

 eating ; the best parts are the middle pieces, which roasted, baked or 

 stewed with a pudding sewed up in its belly, is a most excellent 

 fish. The middle parts of a small conger of about a pound or two 

 weight, stewed in the same manner as common eels, also forms an 

 agreeable dish ; those parts being almost free of the small bones 

 that occur towards the nether extremity. 



There is no fish that presents a more delicate appearance when 



