ORIGIN OF THE SILVER EEL. 33 



There is another eel about the mouths of 

 our rivers, called the sandling. They make 

 an excellent dish. I think they spawn in 

 November. Their young visit us in May. 

 I went to Perth to examine them, and along 

 the banks of the Tay they came in vast 

 numbers streaming along close by the edges, 

 evidently to keep themselves beyond the 

 reach of the trout and the salmon. I threw 

 two or three on the land and could discover 

 no resemblance between them and the fresh- 

 water eel. They were not the same species. 

 I think our earlier naturalists have mistaken 

 them for the fresh-water eel, supposing our 

 rivers and lakes to be stocked from the sea, 

 and believed they found their way back 

 again. 



