EEL. 485 



tthat the scrapings of their bodies, which they left on the stones, 

 were animated and became young eels. Some moderns gave into 

 (these opinions, and into others that were equally extravagant. 

 They could not account for the appearance of these fish in ponds 

 that never were stocked with them, and that were even so remote 

 as to make their being met with in such a plaoe a phenomenon that 

 they could not solve. But there is much reason to believe, that 

 many waters are supplied with these fish by the aquatic fowl of 

 prey, in the same manner as vegetation is spread by many of the 

 land. birds, either by being dropped as they carry them to feed 

 their young, or by passing quick through their bodies, as is the 

 case with herons ; and such may be the occasion of the appearance 

 of these fish in places where they were never seen before. As to 

 their immediate generation, it has been sufficiently proved to be 

 effected in the ordinary course of nature, and that they are vivi- 

 parous. 



They are extremely voracious, and very destructive to the fry 

 of fish. 



No fish lives so long out of water as the eel ; it is extremely 

 tenacious of life, as its parts will move a considerable time after 

 they are flayed and cut into pieces. 



The eel is placed by Linnseus in the genus of miircena 9 his first 

 of the apodal fish, or such which want the ventral fins. 



The eyes are placed not remote from the end of the nose : the 

 irides are tinged with red : the under jaw is longer than the upper: 

 the teeth are small, sharp, and numerous : beneath each eye is a 

 minute orifice ; at the end of the nose two others, small and 

 tubular. 



The fish is furnished with a pair of pectoral fins, rounded at 

 their ends. Another narrow fin on the back, uniting with that of 

 the tail : and the anal fin joins it in the same manner beneath. 



Behind the pectoral fins is the orifice to the gills, which are con- 

 cealed in the skin. 



Eels vary much in their colours, from a sooty hue to a light 

 olive green ; and those which are called silver eels have their bellies 

 white, and a remarkable clearness throughout. 



Besides these, there is another variety of this fish, known in 

 the Thames by the name of grigs, and about Oxford by that of 

 grigs or gluts. These are scarce ever seen near Oxford in the 



2l3 



