THE EEL. 163 



a cargo of 15,000 to 20,000 pounds' weight of 

 live eels, for which the Dutch merchant pays a 

 duty of £13 per cargo for his permission to 

 sell." Regulations of this nature are, of course, 

 ever changing. 



The eel inhabits rivers, meres, lakes, and 

 ponds, but it is highly susceptible of cold, and 

 during intense frosts, accompanied by a piercing 

 east wind, thousands of eels, though buried in 

 the mud, have been known to perish, and, 

 crawling from their lurking holes in the agonies 

 of death, have been washed down the stream to 

 the tideway, and thro^v^l upon the beach. Many 

 instances of this kind are on record. In the 

 high northern regions there are no eels — none 

 exist in the great rivers of Siberia, in the 

 Wolga, or in the lower Danube, which receives 

 a vast influx of Alpine Avater, brought by the 

 Icn, the Frauu, the Save, and Drave. Few or 

 no eels exist in our mountain streams. 



In lakes and ponds, or in rivers remote from 

 the sea, the eel breeds, depositing its spawn 

 about the end of April or beginning of May. 

 But when the way is clear, eels migrate in vast 

 numbers to the mixed and brackish water of 

 the estuaries of rivers, during the autumn, 

 where they deposit their spawn in warmer 

 water during that season, or very early in the 



