294 MI'H.ENID.E. 



capacious air-bladder, Eels rise to various elevations in tlie 

 water with great ease, and sometimes swim very high even in 

 deep water. When Whitebait-fishing in the Thames, I 

 once caught an Eel in the net in twenty-six feet depth of 

 water, though the Whitebait-net does not dip more than 

 about three feet below the surface. 



Eels appear to be slow of growth, not attaining greater 

 length than twelve inches during the first year, and do not 

 mature roe till the second or third year. The sharp-nosed 

 species, however, acquires a large size. I saw at Cambridge 

 the preserved skins of two which weighed together fifty 

 pounds ; the heaviest twenty-seven pounds, the second twen- 

 ty-three pounds. They were taken on draining a fen-dyke 

 at Wisbeach. 



Ely is said to have been so named from rents being for- 

 merly paid in Eels : the lords of manors in the isle were 

 annually entitled to more than 100,000 Eels. A stich or 

 stick of Eels was twenty-five ; and the practice of stringing 

 Eels on tough slender willow-twigs, put in at the gill-aper- 

 ture and out at the mouth, still prevails in Dorsetshire 

 among those who carry Eels about for sale from house to 

 house ; one, two, or three pounds' weight being thus strung 

 on a stick, to suit different customers. Elmore on the 

 Severn obtained its name from the immense number of Eels 

 which are taken there. 



