THE DRAWING OF THE SEINE. 165 



ally make overland journeys from one body of water to 

 another, but they leave their proper element, at times, 

 to feed upon animal matter lying on the shore, but 

 quite out of the water. My attention was called to this 

 fact during the past summer. A deep hole in the 

 creek had had a net drawn through it, and nearly a 

 bushel of catfish had been taken. These the fishermen 

 dressed upon the sliore, and left the heads, skins, and 

 refuse portions lying on the sand, fully twenty feet from 

 the water. Exposure to the hot sun soon caused de- 

 composition to set in, and the stench was powerful. 

 Two days later, having occasion to pass near by, I no- 

 ticed a series of serpentine lines or channels in the sand, 

 leading from the putrescent mass to the water. They 

 were not the tracks of any mammal, batracliian, or insect, 

 evidently. No mollusk could have worn so deep a path, 

 and snakes glide too gently over sand to leave a trace 

 of their passage. What, then, could it be ? Certain that 

 the visitors to the spot came at night, I hoped the visit 

 might be repeated, and long after the sun went down I 

 quietly approached the place, thinking to surprise the 

 creatures, whatever they might be. In this I was suc- 

 cessful, and no caution was necessary in making the dis- 

 covery. I found a dozen small eels apparently feeding 

 on the decaying fish-heads, and they made no effort to es- 

 cape, when I reached the spot. These, it proved, were the 

 animals that had channelled the sand between the, to 

 them, savory food and the water. It is well-known that 

 eels swim very near the surface of the water, at night, 

 and often with the tips of their noses just above it, so 

 that the surface is rippled as they move rapidly along. 



