l6o SriNOUS FISHES. 



There are feveral varieties of the common eel, probably 

 occafioned by the different food on which they are fupport" 

 ed. Thefe animals are all extremely voracious ; they 

 devour carrion or any putrid fubftance that falls in the 

 way * : They are capable of fubfiding equally in ffefii 

 water, or in fait, and thrive either in a ilream or in a 

 pond, and even in wells f; but though a fiQi almoll uni- 

 verfal, naturalifts feem agreed, that there are none in the 

 Danube, nor in any of thofe ftreams which flow into it ; 

 while they are found in all the branches of the Rhine J, 



This fpecies often grows to a pretty large fiz.e, fome 

 ■weighing feventeen pounds ; there is indeed an infe- 

 rior kind in the Tha?7ies, and about Oxford, which nei- 

 ther attain to the fame iize nor fatnefs ; they are known 

 by the largenefs of the head, and the roundnefs of the 

 fnout, and have there received the appellation of grigs. 

 Every fpecies of the eel was deemed among the Romans 

 contemptible food, according to 'Juvenal, from their foul 

 feeding, and their refemblance to a fnake. 



'^he Conger Kel\, 



This often grows to an enormous fize ; fome are taken 

 eighteen inches in circumference, and ten feet loi.g, 



weighing 



* Brit. Zool. t Rond. ubi fupra*. \ Allrcrtus. 



§ Muraena Conger, Ijn. Syft. Le Congre, Belon. 



