374 THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF EUROPE. 



though Yarrell saw the skins at Cambridge of Eels taken at Wisbech, which 

 weighed twenty-three and twenty-seven pounds respectively. 



The head of the Eel is from one-eighth to one-ninth of the length of the fish. 

 The vent is four times the length of the head behind the extremity of the snout. 

 The breadth of the head is from two-fifths to a third of its length. The height 

 of the head is one-half its length. The greatest height of the body exceeds 

 its thickness by about one-third, so that the transverse section of the fish is 

 vertically ovate. The cleft of the mouth is between one-fourth and one-third 

 of the length of the head, and in the broad-nosed variety its length is equal to 

 the width of the head in front of the eye. The eye, which is rather small, is 

 covered with transparent skin, as in the Misgurnus fossilis . It is placed above 

 the angle of the mouth, and separated from the other eye by a frontal inter- 

 space, which measures from once to twice the orbital diameter. The distance 



Fig. 172. ANGUILLA VULGAHIS (TUHTO> T ). 



of the eye from the snout varies with the bluntness of the nose, but is never 

 more than twice the diameter of the eye. The lips are thick and fleshy ; the 

 lower lip may project slightly in front of the lower jaw. On the upper lip, 

 near the end of the snout, there are two short open pores, projecting almost 

 like aborted barbels. The nares are simple, oval, and near to the upper border 

 of the eye. The premaxillary, maxillary, vomer, and mandible, are covered 

 with small teeth of uniform size, in bands. The lancet-shaped tongue ends in 

 a free point. The gill-aperture is a half-moon-shaped cleft in front of the base 

 of the pectoral fin, which is ovate. There are ten branchiostegal rays, which 

 are long and slender, and united to the skin which covers the head. Four 

 gill arches are connected with the small operculum. 



The dorsal fin commences at a distance behind the snout of two-and- 

 a-half times the length of the head, and extends down nearly two-thirds 

 of the total length of the body of the Eel. The rays at first are very short, 

 being only about one-quarter of the height of the body, but become much 

 higher as they pass backward, and, at the end of the tail are twice as high 

 as the deptli of the tail. The dorsal fin passes insensibly into the caudal, 

 and this similarly passes into the anal, which is as much developed as the 



