"SUN-SPEARING." 125 



of his natural element cramps his development, or 

 vitiates his tastes by impurities. A mass of water, 

 boundless perhaps in extent to eel intelligence, affords 

 him unlimited scope for exercise, and supplies him 

 with an inexhaustible store of wholesome nutriment. 

 Eesponsive to the dignity and fostering impulse of 

 local circumstance, he becomes the type, the model 

 representative, of his " order." In this state of perfect 

 equality with his more highly-prized and organised 

 companions of the lake, he has left popular notions 

 of the economy of eel life far behind. As he flashes 

 in brightness and power through the crystal element, 

 the common observer would scarcely recognise re- 

 lationship or similitude to the semi-amphibious snigs 

 of the manor ponds. Like them, however, he hiber- 

 nates, for in his highest condition he is still true to 

 the instincts of the race. But what a difference be- 

 tween the slimy, sulphuretted ooze in which they 

 hide their diminished heads, and the pure silt and 

 vegetable fibre beds in which their " silver " relative 

 takes up his winter's quarters, with pearly shells for 

 his pillow, and the white surge of the lake breaking 

 in music over his head ! Often has our tiny bark 

 paused over these winter colonies in the creeks of the 

 lake to admire the spiracles of the semi-fluid mass 

 through which he breathed the purest of water. 

 Sometimes in spring, according to the temperature of 

 the season, he shakes off his winter lethargy, takes to 



