io A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



been described ; but in less formidable streams 

 they abandon this arrangment, and travel, 

 each one more or less at his own sweet will, near 

 the bank. 



The perseverance of these little creatures in 

 overcoming any obstructions they may encounter 

 is quite extraordinary. The large floodrgates, 

 sometimes twenty feet high, to be met with on 

 the Thames, might be supposed sufficient to 

 bar the progress of a fish the size of a darning- 

 needle. But young eels have a wholesome 

 idea that nothing can stop them j consequently 

 nothing does. As one writer says, speaking of 

 the way in which they ascend flood-gates and 

 suchlike barriers, " Those which die stick to the 

 posts ; others which get a little higher meet 

 with the same fate, until at last a sufficient 

 layer of them is formed to enable the rest to 

 overcome the difficulty of the passage." The 

 mortality resulting from such " forlorn hopes " 

 greatly helps to account for the difference in 

 the number of young eels on their upward 

 migration, and of those who return down stream 

 in the autumn. In some places these baby 



