THE EEL FAMILY. 379 



lific, and tenacious of life. Their consumption in some of 

 our large cities is very great. The markets of London are 

 supplied principally from Holland by two Dutch companies 

 having a regular fleet of vessels expressly built for this 

 traffic, and furnished with capacious wells in which vast 

 quantities of eels can be preserved alive until required. 

 One or more of these vessels may be seen at any time 

 lying off Billingsgate fish-wharf, whilst the others ply 

 backwards and forwards between England and Holland, 

 each boat bringing over a cargo of from fifteen to twenty 

 thousand pounds weight, upon which a duty of 13 per 

 load is levied. These fish and Salmon are the only species 

 sold by the pound weight in the London market. 



During the winter months the Eels lie torpid or buried 

 in the mud, at a depth usually of from 12 to 16 inches, 

 affecting especially the soft and spongy soils of harbours 

 and river-beds from which the tide 

 recedes daily. In Somersetshire the 

 country people assert that they can 

 trace the burying-places of Eels by the 

 hoar frost not lying over such spots ; 

 and it is said that, following this clue, 

 they dig them up in heaps. The mouths 

 of drains or small streams, in front 

 of which the mud is never without a 



together with " the very superior breed of hogs " belonging to the 

 abbess and her nuns, a principal part of the revenue of that establish- 

 ment. 



