154 BRITISH FRESHWATER FISHES 



The female Eels grow to a much larger size than 

 the males ; the latter do not often attain a length 

 of much more than 20 inches, whereas female 

 examples 3 feet long and weighing 4 or 5 Ibs. are 

 by no means uncommon, whilst a length of 5 feet 

 and a weight of 1 2 to 15 Ibs. is sometimes attained. 

 In the Buckland Collection there is the cast of an 

 Eel from the Mole, which measured a little more 

 than 4 feet 6 inches in length and weighed 

 10 Ibs., and Walton may be believed in his state- 

 ment that an Eel if yards long was caught 

 in the river at Peterborough in 1667. The 

 Eastern counties seem to be the home of the 

 largest Eels, for the Rev. R. Lubbock's record of 

 one of more than 20 Ibs., taken near Norwich in 

 1839, can scarcely be questioned, whilst Yarrell 

 saw at Cambridge the skins of two said to have 

 weighed 23 and 27 Ibs., which were taken on 

 draining a fen-dyke at Wisbech. 



The Eel is subject to great variation, and on this 

 account has received a number of names, whilst expert 

 zoologists like Yarrell and Thompson recognized 

 three or four species in the British Isles alone. It 

 was not until 1896 that Petersen, a Dane, showed 

 the reason of this variation and established beyond 

 doubt that there is only one species of European 

 Eel. 



Most Eels may be referred to one of two types, 

 i.e. Yellow Eels, or Eels in their growing dress, 

 and Silver Eels, or Eels in their breeding dress 

 (cf. PI. XXI). The Yellow Eels are usually rather 

 pale, with the back greyish, brownish, or greenish, 

 the sides yellow, and the belly similarly coloured, 

 or white ; the eyes are small and more or less turned 



