VOL. XLIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 311 



That the phial of water receives no degree of electricity in this case, is not 

 strictly true : it receives as much as any other mass of matter of the same bulk, 

 would, under the same circumstances. For we find that we cannot highly 

 electrify the water, unless the electricity from the globe be directed through the 

 water and phial to the non-electric in contact ; in which passage a great quantity 

 is accumulated, by its not pervading the glass so fast as it is furnished by the wire; 

 and therefore we find that when the water will contain no more, the surcharge 

 runs ofF by the wire : so that this experiment, any more than those which pre- 

 cede, does not contradict M. du Fay's opinion ; the thinness of the glass per- 

 mitting it, not wholly, but partially, to stop the electricity. 



On the Perpendicular Ascent of Eels, By Mr. Wm. Arderon, F. R. S. 



N" 482, p. 393. 



On reading, some years before, what Dr. Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, 

 relates concerning the passage of eels across meadows, in the night-time, from 

 pond to pond, Mr. A. could hardly forbear thinking that the gentleman must 

 have been deceived; but what Mr. A. has lately seen gives him great reason to 

 believe that account to be strictly true. 



On June 12, 1745, while viewing the flood-gates belonging to the water-works 

 in the city of Norwich, he beheld a great number of eels sliding up them and the 

 posts adjacent, notwithstanding they all stood perpendicular to the horizon, and 

 5 or 6 feet above the surface of the pool below the water-works. They ascended 

 these posts and gates, till they came into the dam above. And, what makes the 

 matter appear still more strange, they slid up with the utmost facility and readi 

 ness; though many of the boards and posts were quite dry, and as smooth as a 

 common plane had left them. 



He observed, that at first they thrust their heads, and about half their bodies, 

 out of the water, and held them up against the wood-work for some time : pro^ 

 bably till they found the glutinous matter, which is constantly about their bodies, 

 become sufficiently thick or viscid, by being exposed to the air, to sustain their 

 weight : then they would begin to ascend directly upwards, with as much seeming 

 ease, as if they had been sliding along the level ground ; and thus they continued 

 to do, till they had got into the dam above. 



On those Fossil Figured Stones called Belemnites. By Mr. Emanuel Mendez Dq 



Costa. N° 482, p. 397. 



The belemnites is a fossil of different magnitudes and colours, ever regular in 

 shape, which is either cylindric, conic, or approaching to them. Numbers of 

 them have, on one side only, a chap or seam running their whole length; others 

 have it in part ; and in others it is not at all to be observed : it consists of a talcy 



