ORIGIN OF THE SILVER EEL. 21 



In 1828 ill-health made it necessary for 

 me to leave Dundee. I settled near Blair- 

 gowrie, where I took a lease of a small 

 spinning mill and a few acres of land. The 

 land abounded with springs and water, 

 and thus I had every local advantage 

 for pursuing my eel experiments. This 

 year, 1829, while building my dwelling- 

 house, about the beginning of April, I 

 dug a well in a low place for building 

 purposes. The water came up eight inches 

 below the surface, and two beetles appeared 

 in this well and gave birth to two eels each. 

 In order to free them from danger from any 

 lime that might adhere to the buckets of 

 the workmen when drawing water, I re- 

 moved them to another well. The whole 

 four died in the course of a few weeks. 

 I now began to see that standing water 

 would not answer. I looked out for a 

 spring that ran constantly, and dug a well 

 at the mouth of it about a foot in diameter. 

 The orifice by which the water flowed into 

 the well was four inches below the surface 

 of the water standing in the well. I 

 covered the orifice with a piece of brass 



