THE EEL FAMILY. 389 



cc In a small pond in a walled garden at Craigo, the seat 

 of David Cargegil, Esq., near Montrose, Eels have been 

 kept for nine or ten years. They lie torpid during the 

 whole winter unless the sun is shining brightly, when they 

 will occasionally come out from their hiding-place under 

 some loose stones and sprawl about the bottom of the 

 pond, but refuse to take any food. They eat sparingly 

 until the warm weather begins, when they become quite 

 insatiable : one of them will then swallow twenty-seven 

 large worms one after another. They generally lie quietly 

 at the bottom of the pond, except when any of the 

 family go and look into it, when they invariably rise to 

 the surface, sometimes for food, and at others merely 

 to play with the hand, or take the fingers into their 

 mouths. 



About the month of August they become very restless, 

 and lose no opportunity of the pond overflowing to get out ; 

 when sought for in the garden on these occasions they are 

 invariably found travelling eastwards (the direction of the 

 sea, which is about four miles from Craigo) . Towards the 

 end of August or beginning of September they retire to 

 their winter retreat under the stones. Whether they breed 

 in this pond or not is uncertain; but on clearing it out 

 last summer a few very small Eels were discovered; and 

 how else they could have found their way there it is not 

 easy to conjecture, as there is a fine rose on the mouth of 

 the pipe by which the water enters. From their rapacity, 

 shown in devouring their companions (some Gold-fish), 



