"SUN-SPEARING." 123 



and for this reason are objected to by some squeamish 

 epicures. In Ireland the same animals are openly 

 charged with milking cows at night ; or what is 

 worse, permit their form and fleetness to be assumed 

 by witches for this reprehensible practice. While I 

 write, a company of French gourmands may be seated 

 round a table, and regaling on a rdti of horse-flesh ! 

 When once men start to be epicures and philanthro- 

 pists, there is no telling to what regimen or laws 

 they may at last subject us. 



It is time, however, to inform a censorious world 

 that there is a large class of eels which never fre- 

 quent the vile places, or practise the vices imputed 

 to other members of the family. Specifically, per- 

 haps, they are identical with their snig relatives ; but 

 morally and aesthetically speaking they are a totally 

 different animal Just as comparative anatomists 

 have discovered that there is one variety of the 

 human race which excels all others in beauty and 

 intelligence, so should I insist upon the existence of 

 a " Circassian type" amongst eels. To the Great 

 Lake Eel alone this pre-eminence properly belongs. 

 The lake itself, to be worthy of such an inhabitant, 

 must possess some corresponding qualities. Without 

 availing myself of the technical repertory of the 

 geologists to describe it, I would say that it should 

 be at least four or five miles long " as the crow flies ;" 

 its sides rock and shingle ; and its bottom for the 



