CHAPTER VIII. 



CATFISH AND EELS. 



CATFISH, Stturidce. Extract from Iconographic Encyclopaedia. 



CATFISH OF THE ATLANTIC STATES AND WESTERN WATERS. 



EELS. Observations on the Petromyzontidce (Lamprey Eels), on the 



Murcenidce (Common Eels), and on the Gymnotidce (Electric Eels). 

 THE COMMON EEL. Anguilla vulgaris. Fishing for Eels. Migratory 



habits. Young Eels as bait. Eels not hermaphrodites. 



CATFISH and EELS are so closely associated in the minds 

 of anglers, that I have thought it proper to include them in 

 the same chapter. In treating of them I give a brief but 

 comprehensive article from the Iconographic Encyclopaedia 

 on the Siluridse, as well as an account of the different fami- 

 lies of anguilliform fishes known as Eels, from the same 

 work. 



" SALUKID^B. Fishes of this family have the skin either 

 naked, and covered with a slimy secretion, or provided with 

 osseous plates of various number and shape. The head is 

 usually depressed, and provided with a variable number of 

 barbels. In most, there is a second and adipose dorsal, some- 

 times confluent with the caudal. The first rays of the dorsal 

 and pectoral fins are generally enlarged into strong spines ; 

 and the pectoral spine is capable of being inflexibly fixed, by 

 peculiar mechanism, in a direction perpendicular to the axis 

 of the body. The edge of the mouth is formed by the inter- 

 12 (177) 



