THE EEL. 185 



Silver eel grig black eel sand-eel. 



Eels vary very much in their colours, from a 

 sooty hue, to a light olive green, and those 

 which are termed silver eels have their bellies 

 white, and throughout a remarkable clearness. 

 There is another variety known in the Thames 

 by the names of grigs, and about Oxford by that 

 of grigs or gluts. These are scarce ever seen 

 near Oxford in the winter, but appear in spring, 

 and bite readily, which the common eels in the 

 neighbourhood will not. They have a larger 

 head, a blunter nose, thicker skin, and are less 

 fat than the common sorts; are in less estima- 

 tion, and seldom exceed three or four pounds 

 weight. The black eel has a large head, a black- 

 back, and yellow belly ; the flesh is reckoned 

 unwholesome, especially when taken out of mud 

 in standing waters. 



The sand-eel seldom exceeds a foot in length. 

 The head is compressed, and narrower than the 

 body; the upper jaw is narrower than the under, 

 the body is cylindrical with scales, hardly per- 

 ceptible. There is but one species of the sand- 

 eel, viz. the tobianus, or launce, a native of Eu- 

 rope. This fish gathers itself into a circle, and 

 pierces the sand with its head in the centre. It 

 is found in most of our sandy shores during some 

 of the summer months; it conceals itself, on the 

 recess of the tides, beneath the sand, in such 

 places where the water is left, at the depth of 

 about a foot; and is in some places dug out,, and 

 in others drawn up by means of a hook contrived 



VOL. v. NO. 34. 2 A 



