288 MUR^NID.E. 



During the cold months of the year Eels remain imbedded 

 in mud ; and large quantities are frequently taken by Eel- 

 spears in the soft soils of harbours and banks of rivers, from 

 which the tide recedes, and leaves tne surface exposed for 

 several hours every day. The Eels bury themselves twelve 

 or sixteen inches deep, near the edge of the navigable chan- 

 nel, and generally near some of the many land-drains, the 

 water of which continues to run in its course over the mud 

 into the channel during the whole time the tide is out. In 

 Somersetshire the people know how to find the holes in the 

 banks of rivers in which Eels are laid up, by the hoar-frost 

 not lying over them as it does elsewhere, and dig them out 

 in heaps. The practice of searching for Eels in mud in cold 

 weather is not confined to this country ; Dr. Mitchill, in 

 his paper on the Fishes of New York, published in the 

 Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 that city, says, " In the winter Eels lie concealed in the 

 mud, and are taken in great numbers by spears." Thus 



