CHAPTER LIX 

 ORDER OF EELS 



APODES 



WHENEVER a fish-like creature looks so much like a 

 snake that it becomes necessary to inform people 

 "it is not a snake, but a fish," then it is time to place it and 

 all such creatures at the foot of the class of Bony Fishes. 

 But for the good, hard bones in its skeleton, its descent to 

 a position below the Order of Rays would be swift and sure. 



As a real fish, an eel is little more than a caricature, and 

 he who eats it must first skin it, just as the Dyaks of Borneo 

 do their water snakes before they roast them. It is the vul- 

 ture of the waters, and prefers to feed upon things dead. 



But again are we reminded that there is no accounting 

 for differences in taste. Both in Europe and America they 

 have been eaten ever since the days of the Cave-Dweller and 

 Mound-Builder. And even to-day they are devoured, not 

 with toleration, but with a degree of avidity worthy of better 

 meat. 



A German writer who catalogued the good points of the 

 eel set forth prominently the fact that it is an excellent 

 scavenger, and devours dead fish, crabs and any fleshy prey, 

 living or dead, that it can secure. Those who wish to pursue 

 the subject of the food habits of the eel to its logical conclu- 



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