THE EEL FAMILY. 395 



greedily upon spawn, worms, larvae, and in fact upon every 

 description of animal matter ; and it is even said that they 

 have occasionally been seen swimming about on the sur- 

 face of the water and cropping the leaves of small aquatic 

 plants. They have also been known to attack Carp and 

 other fish of large size, seizing them by the fins, though 

 apparently without the power of doing them any further 

 injury. 



In the ' Practical Angler ' (p. 13) it is stated that an Eel 

 has been seen to dart suddenly against a Trout, striking 

 it so forcibly in the eye -with the protruding lower jaw that 

 the Trout was stunned, and floated insensible down the 

 stream. This it has somewhat fancifully been suggested 

 might have been an instinct on the part of the Eel, which 

 knew that it could not eat a fish of that size whilst alive, 

 but that it might easily pick its bones when dead. 



The size attained by the Conger Eel is enormous. I have 

 in several instances seen it as thick round as a man's 

 thigh ; and on one occasion a fish of this sort which was 

 pulled into my boat in a crab -net bit one of the sailors so 

 sharply through his thick wading-boots that he was lame 

 for some time afterwards. The singularity of this incident 

 is increased by the fact that the body of the Eel was divided 

 in two complete pieces when the head portion inflicted the 

 injury. This fish attains an immense size at St. Helena, 

 where more than one person has lost his life through 

 having become entangled in his line (a small rope) and 

 being dragged into the sea. It is not an uncommon prac- 



