168 FISHES AND FISHING. 



cularly line. In the Highlands, Hofland says, 

 they are looked upon with aversion. The varieties 

 of the Anguillidae, or true eel family, are far be- 

 yond the ideas of former naturalists. In the ac- 

 count of Apodal Pish, published December 1856, 

 by order of the trustees of the British Museum, there 

 are about forty-five different species. And of 

 Congeridae, or the Conger family, there are an im- 

 mense variety ; not including in either of these the 

 gymnotus, in which tribe there are probably several, 

 differing one from the other. I was at a place some 

 little distance from London, a'few years ago, and was 

 shown two large tanks in a clear river, where I was 

 informed eels were kept ; and the story related to me 

 was, that the proprietor of them, when a poor itine- 

 rant dealer in eels, used to purchase Dutch eels for 

 about three pence a pound, and sell them about the 

 country, as coming from that beautiful stream, at a 

 shilling or eighteen-pence a pound ; he then put his 

 Dutch eels into tanks, and kept them in the river ; so 

 that he truly declared they came out of that river, 

 and he made a good fortune by the plan. Many 

 tricks of the kind are played off on the banks of rivers 

 at houses famous for stewed, or spitchcocked eels. 

 Dutch eels placed for some time in a tank or trunk, 

 in a clear river, and fed with small live fish, will 

 lose much of their noxious qualities. The monks of 



