120 THE COMMON EEL. 



half their bodies out of the water, and held them 

 against the wood-work for some time ; Mr. Ar- 

 deron Imagines till they found the viscidity of their 

 bodies sufficiently thick, by exposure to the air, to 

 support their weight. They then began to ascend 

 directly upwards, and with as much apparent ease 

 as if they had been sliding on level ground : this 

 they continued till they had got into the dam 

 above*. 



Of the migration of young eels, from one part of 

 a river to another, a single instance is related by 

 Dr. Anderson in his publication called the Bee. 

 " Having occasion (says this gentleman) to be once 

 on a visit at a friend's house on Dee-side, in Aber- 

 deenshire, I often delighted to walk by the banks of 

 the river. I one day observed something like a 

 black string moving along the edge of the river in 

 shoal water. Upon closer inspection I discovered 

 that this was a shoal of young eels, so closely joined 

 together as to appear, on a superficial view, one 

 continued body moving briskly up against the 

 stream. To avoid the retardment they experienced 

 from the force of the current, they kept close along 

 the water's edge the whole of the way, following 

 all the bendings and sinuosities of the river. Where 

 they were embayed, and in still water, the shoal 

 dilated in breadth, so as to be sometimes near a 

 foot broad ; but when they turned a cape, where 

 the current was strong, they were forced to occupy 



* Arderon on the Perpendicular Ascent of Eels, in Phil. Tram 

 vol. xliv. p. 395. 



